Just an Inventor
by VaranFall
Summary: All I wanted to do was invent a tool to protect my friends and family. But what I ended up doing was involving myself in a world beyond my control. Devils, Angels, Gods and Dragons? I'm gonna need a better tool.
1. Back to Kuoh

" _So Samuel, are you excited to go back to Japan?"_ A man in his forties asked from a screen in the wall of a plane asked. The man's name was Alexander Ddeallus, a wealthy businessman and inventor back in America. His skill with machinery was known thanks to his contributions to weapon development and medical treatment, and ironic combination of talents.

In front of the screen, sat his son Samuel. Samuel was roughly seventeen now, and he certainly looked the part of European descent. Unlike his father, who has black hair and brown eyes, Samuel had short, dark red hair and blue eyes. He inherited most of his mother's appearance, the only part from his father was that of his ethnicity with his family's tie to Spain. He stood at 5'10 and had a lean build, something that came along with working in the lab with his father. Nothing impressive, but enough to be in shape. He was wearing a pair of black sweatpants, a black jacket, a dark grey shirt and a glove on his left hand.

Sam spun a pen between his fingers as he looked out the window, staring at the clouds with a relaxed gaze. "I'll admit, it's good to think about seeing the idiot again after six years."

Alex chuckled at his son's comment, a smile growing on his face. _"And perhaps find someone else that can handle you new. Perhaps someone other than Issei's two more… unique friends?"_

Sam rolled his eyes in response. "What, I told you about Aika. Doesn't she count?"

" _Didn't you say she makes you feel uncomfortable?"_

"Fair enough." Sam nodded, remembering the girl's tendencies to try and make a guy feel as awkward as possible. "But I wouldn't hold my breath on that girl thing any time soon. I don't expect it to be easy if Issei's gotten worse over the years."

" _Oh come now, I'm sure Issei's still the same as he was when you two last saw each other."_ Alex tried to assure Sam, only to get a cringe from his son.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

" _Well I for one believe in your friend's ability to grow as an individual. Perhaps that distrust is what sets so many people off of you."_

"It isn't distrust, just an educated guess from the years of knowing him." Sam smirked. "If anyone can guess something on him, it's me. He's a rather open book, easy to read if you look at him." Sam then sighed as he saw a break in the clouds, seeing Japan's land in the distance. "But I'll agree that he should be a better guy now."

Alex was about to speak, but was interrupted by a voice out of view. He spoke with the person for a minute before sighing and turning back to Sam. _"Sorry Samuel, I have a meeting I have to get to. About the supplies we have and what we're shipping out."_

"I understand. Business comes first, especially with Ddeallus Corp." Sam responded, sounding disappointed with the news. It didn't surprise him though. The company his father runs has contractors of both fields they served in, dozens or even hundreds. He hardly had enough time to sleep without business coming up again, much less for family. Hell, his contractors probably know his father more than he does.

" _I'm sorry Samuel, I wish I could talk longer but this is important."_ Alex was about to disconnect when he remembered something, knowing he had to say it. _"Oh, and Sam? I made sure the supplies you requested were sent to your old workshop in Kuoh. It should be there within the week. So you can work on your "Secret Project" once you're set up."_

That got a small smile from Sam, who finally turned to look at his father. "Thanks dad. I love you."

" _I love you too."_ Alex responded, the connection cutting as he disconnected their call.

Sam then rested back in his chair, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes. "Six whole years. I wonder how much Kuoh could've changed in that amount of time." The flight lasted for another hour, most of which Sam slept through. It was morning in Japan so all the extra sleep he got would make the first day easier.

Once he landed and unloaded, he made his way through the airport until he saw his ride. Tora Nakasashi, the head of Ddeallus' Japan wing. He's in his late fifties, just about to reach sixty, evident with his white hair. He was dressed as sharply as usual, wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and black tie. He was honestly had the most generic businessman look you could have.

"Mr. Nakasashi, it's good to see you again." Sam spoke as he approached the man, getting a bright smile from him.

"Samuel! It's been too long." Tora gave the boy a light hug, keeping it for a second before releasing him. "You've gotten a lot bigger since the last time I saw you. You only came up to my hip back then, I could've sworn you'd never make it past 5'4. But look at you now!"

"Hehehe… yeah." Sam chuckled embarrassingly, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. He was often sent to Japan for his school sessions, mostly because his father would be out of country and needed someone to watch him while he was gone. One of those people was Nakasashi, who's known Alex for almost twenty years now. The other, surprisingly, was Mr. Hyoudou, who Alex met on his first business meeting to Japan. He never explained what happened to Sam, but he does know that it made Alex trust him ever since.

"Well, we shouldn't keep the Hyoudous waiting." Tora said as he took Sam's bag for him. "I'm sure they'll be excited to see you again after all this time." That gave Sam a smile, excited with seeing them. And when they entered the limo, he had a small grin on his face. For the whole ride, he recognized every single foot they drove. Even when they left the city for the three-hour drive to Kuoh, he could recall each landmark.

While Taro sat at the front with the driver, Sam sat at the very back of the limo, keeping his eyes on the open land. After an hour of the travel, Sam pulled a pair of shaded glasses and a small earpiece from his jacket's inner pocket. Once he put them on, he made sure that the two men in front were focused on each other enough before he continued. "A.V.A.N., you there?"

" _Of course Mr. Ddeallus."_ A female voice spoke through his earpiece, and at the same time a stream of data began to input itself onto the inner lens of the glasses. At the top left of his left lens, the acronym A.V.A.N. appeared. _"You're speaking English right now sir, I thought we're in Japan currently?"_

"Tora can't hear English as well as Japanese, and he's just at the front of the limo." Sam responded, his eyes skimming across the data and moving it as he spoke. "And I need you to do me a favor. Are you able to connect to my workshop's mainframe and start loading your program in? I want to know how if the machines placed last year are operational or not."

" _One moment sir."_ A.V.A.N. responded, her program instantly operating and following through his orders. _"Operation complete. I can confirm that the machinery you bought is still installed and is at full operation. There is even a fraction of the supplies you are to receive there, including wiring, frame works and propulsion. Is there anything else sir?"_

"No A.V.A.N. I just wanted to check up on things. We'll start building the prototype in a day or two, once I'm used to the time lag from traveling."

" _Logging you out then sir."_ A.V.A.N. reported before the glasses shut off. Sam then put the glasses and earpiece away, feeling pride at how well A.V.A.N. has been working so far. A.V.A.N., or Advanced Virtual Assistance Network, is an AI that the boy had created last year, and is the most advanced one he's made to date. Much like his father, Sam has a knack for building and inventing new sorts of gadgets. But unlike his father, Sam also has unimaginable potential in both Artificial and Virtual Intelligence. Currently he's working on true Artificial Intelligence theory, and A.V.A.N. is the closest thing he's ever gotten to and has worked perfectly to current design.

But he had to keep her on the down low. She's not perfect, but has some of the highest intelligence rate for any VI. In fact, she's technically illegal in over a dozen countries, including Japan. So he has to be extra careful when he interacts with her.

And with everything set up and ready, all he had to do was wait the last two hours for the long awaited reunion with the Hyoudou family.

Once they entered Kuoh, Sam couldn't help but grin at the familiarity of the town. Even with the clear expansion done, there was enough of the old setup that he could figure his way around. It also meant that the workshop should still have plenty of space both above and below ground, giving the note that the expansion likely was as big as he hoped.

He was also more than glad to see that the Hyoudous still lived in the same house as before. The place did make plenty of memories.

"Are you sure there's nothing else you need Samuel?" Tora asked as he opened his window, watching the boy walk out with his bag.

"I'm fine Mr. Nakasashi." Sam promised, smirking a bit as he turned to look at the man. "Besides, this'll be a good experience for me. I haven't gotten that "normal life" treatment for quite awhile. I'd like to go through it again."

"Well if you ever need anything, I'm just a phone call away." And with their final goodbye, the limo drove away.

Now with nothing to stall him, Sam turned and walked to the front door, hesitating a bit from knocking on the door. After six years he was honestly nervous to see everyone, despite his excitement.

But he worked himself into knocking, steeling himself when the door was opened by Mrs. Hyoudou. The woman's eyes widened as she saw the boy, recognizing him as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Hi, Mrs. Hyoudou. I'm… I'm back."

"Sammy!" Without a second thought, the woman wrapped her arms around the boy and hugged him close. Sam smiled at the gesture, returning it with his own hug. "It's been so long."

"Too long if you ask me." Sam responded, the two separating to look at each other. "I see you haven't aged a day."

"Oh, don't spare me. I'm well aware of my age at this point." She waved smiling. "But look at you. You've grown to be quite the strapping young man, haven't you?"

"Hehe, I've been told." Sam chuckled.

She then let her eyes look down to his chest, an instant of worry on her face before she looked back to him. "How's your heart?"

The worry didn't escape Sam's attention, but he didn't call it out as he lightly tapped the center of his chest. A small tink was heard, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary for the two. "Still not great, but my dad's tech's been doing its job even better than before." His words calmed the older woman, getting a sigh of relief from her.

"Come inside Sammy, let's get you unpacked." Mrs. Hyoudou waved him in, to which he entered with nostalgia. The Hyoudou Residence was the most welcoming place he's been to, even more so than his actual home. It was at just the right size so that if there were at least two people it didn't feel empty.

The two went to the room that he'd stay in, just across the hall from Issei's and the former started to unpack. As he did, the two talked about the past six years and what the other missed. While Sam brought up his development in aviation and repulsive technology, Mrs. Hyoudou told him of how Issei's time in school has come. And instead of the boy having to go to a school outside of town, Kuoh Academy luckily started to accept boys this year.

"The all female academy?" Sam echoed, remembering the academy. "I'm honestly surprised they started accepting guys. Must be painful with Ise, Motohama and Matsuda all there."

"I think I lost count of how many times they've gotten in trouble over their antics." She sighed. "But what's a mother to do? He'd mature if he could actually get himself a girlfriend."

"Well I mean, there was Irina. He's not totally hopeless if he had a friend that was a girl." Sam tried to encourage as he finished putting away his stuff.

"Who knows? I'm afraid he might already be in trouble today. How am I supposed to get grandchildren if my son can't even get a girlfriend?" Mrs. Hyoudou cried, getting an awkward laugh from Sam.

"A little early for that, but I do see your point." He then stood up, dusting his hands off as he looked out the window. "So Ise's at class then?"

"Yeah, they started last week. I believe they have your schedule and uniforms there now actually." She informed him, placing a finger to her chin. "In fact, the Student Council called today about it."

"I guess I should go and get it then?" Sam questioned, although from the tone of his voice it sounded more of a statement.

"I could get it for you if you want." Mrs. Hyoudou said. "I figured you might want to spend some time getting used to town again before heading out."

"I'll be okay." Sam responded, smiling as he looked back to her. "There's no way I could forget the town that I grew up in. And besides, it'll be a good way to get a tour of the school. And hey, I might even see Ise while there. As long as he hasn't done something stupid."

"Well, okay. But call me if you need anything."

"I will." Sam responded as he grabbed a small bag from the door, the strap having it go down to his waist. And as he headed out, he took out A.V.A.N.'s glasses and earpiece again and put them on, connecting to the A.I. "A.V.A.N., do me a favor and set the quickest path to my workshop from Kuoh Academy please?"

" _Path is set sir."_ The A.I. responded. _"And I'll assume to have the workshop warmed up before you get there?"_

"Just to get it up and running." Sam said, sighing as he walked the familiar streets. "Also, send me a manifest of all the materials. I want to know what I'm going to be working with on the first model."

" _Processing… Complete."_ Upon the download's completion several lists came up with a varying of components, from steel plating to copper wiring. Everything that would be needed to finish the first step of his project.

"Alright, let's put the blue prints together for the walk then, shall we?" Sam spoke, his eyes darting through dozens of files until reaching one that was named "Mark 1". "Open the contents of Mark 1 and start with the propulsion."

" _Understood sir."_ A.V.A.N. computed as the file opened, the individual pieces of the blueprint coming to life. Step by step it was being put together, mostly by Sam's own work as his eyes darted across the lenses. _"Would you like me to work on the repulsor file while you work on the propulsion?"_

"No, let's just settle with the propulsion first alright?" Sam asked, the framework of the blueprint forming together to make a boot. At the bottom of the boots were open engine ports, the starting points for the wiring. "If you find any flaws in it, I want you to update and fix them as I go. Sound fair?"

" _Of course sir."_

For the next ten minutes, the two worked tediously as all of the inner components were set into place. As Sam worked, half focusing on walking and putting everything together, A.V.A.N. was sure to correct the errors he made. She'd even navigate and warn him if he was starting to become too focus on the work and lost sight on the sidewalk.

By the time he made it to the Academy grounds, half of the boots wiring was complete. And with half the school on a period break, he had to log off A.V.A.N. to avoid any suspicion. It would raise a lot of eyes with someone their age talking with an earpiece and shades on.

"Oh crap, the caught us!"

"Run you idiots, run!"

The sudden commotion caught Sam's attention, as he turned to see a rather comical sight. Three boys running away from a group of about twenty girls. At the first glance, he thought of the three as just some random idiots who made a huge error. But noticing the key traits of each of them, the baldhead on one, the glasses on another and the last's spikey brown hair he realized he was half right with his analysis.

' _That looks like the Tennis Club by the uniforms.'_ Sam guessed as he took note to the angry mob. His expression of disappointment turned to one of shock and worry as he saw the girls chasing with their rackets in hand. And seeing a bruise on one of the three guys, he knew the club was out for blood.

"Of course this is how I meet them again." Sam starts to mumble to himself, opening his bag and reaching into it with his right hand. "Couldn't be a normal reunion, had to be saving their necks from a crazy mob of girls." The sound of metal shifting was then heard, and as it did he started to run for the boys.

With his free hand he quickly put his glasses on, a link symbol appearing on it as he moved to intercept the two groups. It'd be a close one, but he was certain that he'd at least make it before the three were caught and probably beaten.

And he was certainly cutting it close, as a wall cornered the three. "Oh crap, wrong turn!"

"Any last words, perverts?" One of the girls asked, preparing her racket as she was the closest.

"Oh shit."

"Wait!" Sam called out, panting as he finally got between the groups. Once he stopped, he placed his left hand on his knee, the right still hidden within the bag as he gasped for air. "Wait… wait… just… oh god I need a charge after this."

"What do you want?" Another girl asked. "You're not wearing a uniform, what are you doing here?"

"I'm… transferring here for… the rest of high school." Sam answered, gaining enough breath back to stand up properly. "But right now, I'm just going to have to go with asking that you'd back away."

"You're serious?" A third one asked. "Since your new, I'm certain you don't know who those three are. The Perverted Trio, the most grotesque and absolute worse of Kuoh Academy. They're-"

"Matsuda, Motohama and Issei." Sam interrupted. "And grotesque? I mean I know they aren't the best thing to look at, but Matsuda and Motohama I'd say are a four, five at best. And Issei… six, maybe? I don't know I'm not great at grading guys or-"

"Shut up!" The first girl shouted, getting him to flinch back. "Just get out of the way or else!"

"I mean, I wouldn't recommend getting too close." Sam said as he pulled his hand out of his bag, revealing a black glove with wires and a glowing blue circle on the palm. "This glove has the power of a Taser X26, the standard Taser for officers in America. That's 50,000 volts." Sam then emphasized the current running through it, sparks going across his palm as he aimed it at the girls. "I realize most of you probably don't take advanced physics, but I'll just explain that a human body can most certainly not handle that much electricity."

"You wouldn't."

"You're threatening me and my friends." Sam countered, smirking as he took a step forward. "I have more than enough reason to. It just matters if you try and follow through with the threats."

"You're bluffing."

"Wanna take that bet?"

"There'll be no need." Before either side could make a move, a new voice spoke up. Turning to it, everyone saw that it was Souna Shitori, the Student Council President and Vice President Tsubaki Shinra.

"Kaichou!?"

"Shyira, does Kiyome know what you're all doing right now?" Souna asked, her eyes staring the girl down as she spoke. "I'm sure that I don't need to explain how bad it looks attacking students, when one of the ones you're threatening is a transfer."

"H-Hai, Kaichou."

"Haha, you got in trouble." Sam gloated, visibly relaxing as he lowered his gloved hand.

"And Mr. Ddeallus." Souna added, turning to Sam and making him flinch. The mention of his last name also got a response from the crowd around them, several gasps being heard. "While I do understand the point of it, weapons such as a gloved Taser are not allowed on academy grounds. I trust that you only brought it to make it through town and to not use it on your fellow classmates."

"Ddeallus? As in, the Ddeallus!?"

"The crazy inventor who made a tiny rocket have the explosive power of a ballistic missile?"

"No, he made a palladium reactor that produces enough energy that it can rival a nuclear power plant!"

"He does look like him!"

"Is that his son?"

"Great, all of Japan's gonna know I'm here in an hour." Sam sighed as he removed his glove and threw it into his bag. "So what's up?" He asked Souna, turning to the girl. "Considering people are calling you Kaichou and you know me, I'm guessing you're the student president here or something?"

"No "something" is needed to be added." Souna responded. "I am Souna Shitori, and yes, I am the Student Council President. We were made aware of your arrival in Kuoh by Mr. Nakasashi and were preparing for you to come for your supplies."

"Sounds like him." Sam muttered, clapping his hands as the commotion behind him continued. "So, where do I get my stuff?"

"Follow us." Souna spoke, her and Tsubaki walking to the main school building.

"Wait, Sam!" Before the boy could follow, Issei had called out his name, getting up and walking to him. "Dude, you're here! How are you doing?" The brown haired teen was clearly excited, hugging his friend when he reached him.

"Careful, attention's being grabbed." Sam chuckled, hugging Issei back before the two separated. "It's good to see you again Ise. I'm surprised that you haven't gotten yourself killed here yet."

"Look who's talking." Ise said, punching Sam's shoulder. "I saw the news report of a certain someone hacking into his father's security network."

"Hey, I did that on a dare. Totally-"

"Mr. Ddeallus." Souna called out, getting a groan from Sam.

"Hey Ise, why don't we talk once our day's over? I'll hang out here once my business here is done, k?" Sam asked, turning to walk towards the student president and vice president.

"Alright, but you better not ditch me like back then!" Issei's reminder caused Sam to smile, forgetting about how the whole school is already aware of his presences.

"So… nice school." Sam brought up, trying to spark a conversation with the girl's escorting him.

"A Taser, Mr. Ddeallus?" Souna responded, looking at him with a measuring glare. "I can understand the caution he likely has, but your father gave you a Taser to go to school?"

"Actually I made it." Sam corrected.

"You made that?" Tsubaki questioned, looking down to his bag.

"Yeah, I got bored on the flight over to here and made it at the start." Sam shrugged, patting the bag as they walked. "I always bring a pile of scrap from some of my previous works when I go traveling. Kill some time instead of sitting around and doing nothing."

"You had a project that had a battery that could shoot 50,000 volts into someone?" Souna asked, lowering her glasses to look at him.

"Technically only 1,200 volts." Sam countered. "The voltage I gave them was in air. An American officer's Taser can only shock someone with a fraction of what it possess the ability to create. And yes, I so happen to be working on a project that needs a killer amount of energy. That battery wasn't nearly enough either so it got thrown into the pile."

"You certainly are your father's son." Souna sighed. "Only someone with his blood could see making a Taser as a simple pass time. Creating weapons to "kill time" as you said."

"Hey, a Taser is closer to that of self-defense." Sam scoffed. "And if I recall, I was at potential risk because of a blood thirsty club. Which reminds me, aren't you going to do anything about them going to attack Ise and the others?"

"We would, however as of lately a Disciplinary Committee was made to do that." Tsubaki answered.

"Well maybe I should talk to them on that. I don't remember everything about Japan, but I'm pretty sure doing that is unacceptable anywhere."

"That wouldn't be recommended." Souna said. "The Disciplinary Committee is rather… against the recent decision to integrate boys into our academy. There's a reason the clubs feel free to take actions like that into their own hands."

"I sense annoyance."

"That is something we must deal with, yet they feel it fine to assault other students." The three then reached the Student Council's office, the two going to their desks while Sam followed Souna. "But that isn't something you need to worry about. Since a new student was involved, we can provide limited action to guarantee that the club will be disciplined. But I can't promise it'll stop."

"Guess that's going to be the best the guys will get." Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead. "So, what do I do to get my stuff?"

"You just have to sign a few papers before we can give you your uniforms and schedule." Souna responded, sitting down and placing the papers on her desk. Sam took the seat across and took the pen from the desk, starting to read and fill them out. "Uniform policy isn't very strict, as long as you have your pants and shirt it doesn't matter how you accessories it. But I believe it should be unsaid that it must be appropriate for class."

"No naked women on shirts, got it." Sam said offhandedly, spinning the pen between his fingers while he read. "And how about the rest of the rules that are important but no one says anything about?"

"Most rules are rather straight forward and normal for western schools." Souna answered. "I would recommend following them close however, as the Disciplinary Committee will be keeping a close eye on you."

"Little ol' me?" Sam asked, pausing from his reading to look at her. "What would make them watching me closely?"

"You're new, and you have a reputation." Souna explained. "You'll be someone that has weight in Kuoh Academy's reputation. You could be a good example as to the inclusion of boys to be beneficial. Or you could be the example as to why we shouldn't have done it and end the social project."

"I don't know which one they're hoping for then." Sam chuckled, finishing the papers as he did. "Alright, that should be it."

"Thank you." Souna said as she took the papers, handing him his schedule. "All of your classes are on there, and any future inclusions must be approved before you can participate. We'll have one of our members show you the academy's layout and where your classes are. And once done we'll give you your uniforms and you'll be on your way."

"I call dibs!" Once Souna was done speaking, one of the girls in the room shouted to get their attention. When Sam turned to look, he could literally see how much different she was in comparison to the entire room. Most of the people here looked rather professional and simple, but she was seen to be extravagant and bright. From her almost glowing blonde hair, to her large breasts and her impossibly bright gold eyes.

While Sam chuckled at the girl's enthusiasm, Souna was clearly annoyed and sighed. "Denica, I thought we've been over this before. You can't show new students around because you yourself aren't qualified to."

"What? How?" Denica asked. "I'm totally qualified to give a tour of the building."

"You've gotten lost more times than I can count."

"That was when I was new!"

"That was this morning."

"Hey, I can learn quick if I want to. And I'll even bring a map." Denica mentioned, heading to the desk and laying her torso down, holding her hands together in a begging manner. "Please Son-I mean Souna! This guy is easily the third hottest person I've seen and I need early points." Denica was sure to whisper the last part, keeping Sam from hearing it.

While Souna only sighed again, Sam chuckled a little louder, having to cover his mouth. "Gotta give her credit, she has a bit of spirit." Sam said, looking over to Souna. "Why not give her this chance? And if she brings a map I'll know this place better than the back of my hand in two minutes flat."

"See, new guy agrees!"

"Why did you have to encourage her?" Souna asked, pinching her forehead as she looked to her desk. "Fine, if you want to try and show him around, go right ahead. Give it your best."

"Yes! Score!" Denica cheered, grabbing Sam's arm and pulling him to the door as he got up. "Onward to the tour of Kuoh Academy!"

"Mr. Ddeallus." Souna called out, getting his attention just before they left. "If you end up being the one leading the tour, be sure to tell me."

"Sure thing Souna." Sam waved, closing the door as Denica continued to pull him.

"You, uh… wouldn't actually tell her if I mess up? Right?" Denica asked, rubbing the back of her head as she did. "It's just… you'll be the first person I'm showing around and working with maps is, well, let's say it isn't the reason I was accepted into the Student Council."

Sam could only chuckle as he put a finger to his lips and winked, promising his silence. "Alright! Let's get this started then!" The girl pumped her spare fist up, surprising Sam as she pulled harder and began to show the way around the academy. Sam had to admit, that while she was looking at the map constantly, Denica didn't even hesitate as she would make a turn or explanation to each section of the building. Hell, she was aware enough to move her shoulders at the last second to avoid running into someone, even moving him to follow through with it.

' _She acts like a total klutz, but she really knows how to move around.'_ Sam thought as Denica stopped herself just in time to avoid a group of four students walking by, taking a second to look over at them and warn them before continuing on with the tour. But she clearly also had issues with determining certain wings of the building, leading to Sam having to snatch the map from her and go over it a few times.

By the end of the tour, they were outside by the court fields, walking by as some students in P.E. were running. "And that should be all of the places that you'll go too." Denica said, smiling as she closed her eyes. "Nailed it Denica! Showing the transfer student has been a wondering success!"

"Except when you got lost at the food court?" Sam asked, getting a mild glare from her.

"Don't ruin this for me!"

Sam laughed as he looked away, taking a small nudge from her elbow as he was still being pulled. As he did however, his eyes caught sight of an old school building a few meters away, just outside the woods near the main academy. "Hey Denica, what's that over there?"

"Huh?" Denica hummed, following his sight to see the building. "Oh, that's just the old academy grounds. I don't think you'd really care to see it though. The only thing that goes on there is the activities for the Occult Research Club."

"Occult Research Club?" Sam asked, humor in voice as he looked to the shorter girl. "You mean like ghosts and voodoo and stuff? That child belief in stuff like the supernatural? There's actually a club for that here?"

"You sound like it's rather dumb."

"I mean, I am a man of science." Sam responded. "Stuff like the afterlife and magic seems like a rather stupid and mundane thing to be honest. There's already hundreds of different beliefs of the supernatural and magic is, in most instances, a form of science that we currently can't explain."

"You really think like that?" Denica asked. "That there's no such thing that could be like magic?"

"Back then, electricity was considered to be the work of the gods." Sam said, placing his free hand on his chest as he continued. "Then a man with a kite went out and proved that it could be harnessed. And after that, a guy with a few chemicals managed to create the first battery and produce a steady flow of electricity. Everything can be explained and discovered through science, it's just if we're advanced enough to understand it."

"Okay, I understand at least one of those two references." Denica sighed. "But thinking that everything is science is so boring and lame. I like to think that there are powers out there that go beyond human understanding, it seems way cooler that way. And magic is at the top of that."

"How old are you?" Sam chuckled.

"Sixteen, just like you." That caused Sam to laugh uncontrollably, getting her cheeks to slightly redden. "What are you laughing about!?"

"You're as old as me and you… and you still believe in magic!" Sam bellowed, having to wipe his eyes to avoid tears from dropping. "Oh my god, that's just rich! I'm crying! I'm actually crying that's so funny!"

"Hey, stop laughing at me! It isn't that funny!"

"It's hilarious!"

"Stop or I'll… I'll… ha!"

"Wait don-gah!"

"Stupid pretty boy, laughing at me over that." Denica huffed as she started to walk away from Sam, who was crouched on the ground after getting punched in the gut.

"Hehe… totally worth it." Sam chuckled, clutching his stomach as he attempted to ignore the pain. "Girl's got a mean punch, I gotta remember that net time I'm laughing at her." As he watched her enter the school, he couldn't help but give an honest laugh. "Did she forget she's supposed to bring me back or…"

"Oh shit!" He heard in the distance, seeing her quickly come back around the corner. "You still have to get your finalized schedule!"

"There it is." Sam muttered, smiling as Denica ran towards him and helped him up, paying no mind that in the process she flashed her panties to him.

' _I think this'll be an interesting year.'_


	2. Why Here?

"NO WAY!"

"I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than it should be." Sam winced as he rubbed his ears, having suffered through Matsuda, Motohama and Issei all screaming at him.

"No, you're not making it as big of a deal as it is!" Issei shouted back, grabbing Sam's shirt as he started to jerk him back and forth. "You were hanging out with Denica, Denica! She's one of the most popular girls in the second year, no the whole school! You have no idea how lucky you are to have a hot babe like her showing you around!"

"She was just doing her job." Sam responded. "It's not like it was much more than her showing me around. Believe me, if anything else did happen I'd be more than willing to spill the details."

"That doesn't make it better!"

"Jeez, you're all making a lot of noise for the day ending." Aika Kiryuu, a fellow first year to Issei and an old friend to the group, said as she walked up. "What, you set up a special circle-jerk session or something?"

"What, no!" Matsuda shouted as Motohama grabbed Sam in a headlock, the two glaring at the foreigner. "This bastard here got to hang out with one of the most popular chicks here and he just showed up! Lucky guy just shows up and is suddenly a big deal!"

"Sorry I-ack… have a better reputation." Sam said as he tried to get free of Motohama's hold. "Comes with… being a genius who can build gadgets from scratch."

"Oh, I guess the gossip going around is true then." Kiryuu smirked as she saw Sam, the boy sighing when he met her gaze. "Hey there Sam, long time no see. I see you've grown quite well."

"Aika, I see your hair is as unkempt as your personality." Sam countered. "Let me guess, you haven't been on a date like the rest of these idiots."

"HEY!"

"And let me guess in saying that you haven't managed to keep a girlfriend for more than a week?"

"At least I can say that I can actually get a girlfriend."

The two then began to banter both and forth, getting the three spectators to all sweatdrop in response. "Did they just forget that we're still here?"

"They've always seemed to block everyone out when they start arguing." Issei sighed, remembering how heated their arguments could actually get. "I swear it's like they got hate-ons for each other."

"Care to explain the perks of being forever alone!?"

"Hey!" Motohama interrupted the two, pulling m ore on Sam's neck to stop him. "Your two's arguing is that last thing we want to deal with right now. And to be honest, even though it's been six years, it's kinda getting old."

"Not to mention you take things way too far if left uninterrupted." Matsuda added.

"Well sorry, there isn't a lot I can do when I'm HELD IN A CHOKE HOLD AND NEED A RECHARGE!" Sam started to shout, surprising everyone.

"Oh shit, you haven't charged!?" Motohama questioned as he released Sam, stepping back to let him breathe. "Why didn't you say anything about that sooner?"

"I did, back when the Tennis Club was ready to kick your asses." Sam coughed, rubbing his neck to clear his throat. "I forgot to charge up on the plane and when I made it to Ise's house. And I'm pretty sure I'm starting to feel some of the effects of it."

"Dude, you should have said that before." Issei spoke as he put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "You know how bad your health gets when you're running low on energy. You could've gotten hurt if you didn't speak up sooner."

"Well, I figured it'd last long enough to make it through my introduction and I could get to my workshop." Sam said, patting his chest a few times before breathing in relief. "Okay, my lungs are cleared up again. So where were we?"

"We're getting you charged back up." Issei ordered, gripping on Sam's shoulder before pushing him, walking towards town while keeping a hold on Sam. "Whatever we plan on doing later can wait until your back to 100%. Sound fair guys?"

"Yeah, sure." Matsuda nodded.

"We'll figure something out while you two get that fixed." Motohama added on. "Keep an eye on your phones, we'll text you once we have something set."

"Try not to have a stroke on the way back." Kiryuu finished, grinning as Sam gave her a mock glare over his shoulder.

"God I missed the banter."

"At least you two didn't go all out like how you used to." Issei sighed. "Forgetting about our normal drama, what have you been doing man? It's been six years, you have to have been doing something special."

"Eh, I wouldn't go too far into special." Sam smiled, getting out of Issei's grip to walk next to him. "I haven't done much outside the usual work dad has me do, but I do have a few projects in R&D that have come a ways."

"Oh… neat?"

Sam rolled his eyes at Issei's confusion. "R&D is an acronym for research and development. I have a completely brand new invention in the works that I plan on developing. It'll completely revolutionize how humanity operates and goes about their daily lives. Not to mention how we defend ourselves. I'd go so far as to say it'd be the greatest development my family's had since my dad's arc reactor."

"Whoa, you really think it'll be that good?" Issei asked. "I mean, you've always had a knack for making crazy gadgets when we were little, but to surpass the cleanest and most efficient energy source known to man? That has to be some invention you're cooking up."

"Oh trust me, you'll understand once I've got it finished." Sam guaranteed, smirking as he visualized his complete project. "It'll be unlike anything you could possibly imagine."

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to see it to believe it then." Issei said as he crossed his arms behind his head, closing his eyes as he did. "I doubt it'll be better than anything I can imagine. No way you're creating a sexy cyborg with large breasts or anything like that."

"Honestly I'm glad that you're mind hasn't changed too much since back then." Sam laughed, patting Issei's back as he did. "It means you're still the same loser that I remember. It's going to be fun watching you try to get a girlfriend and inevitably fail in the end."

"It'll happen, just you watch!"

"Yeah, sure." Sam smirked, rolling his eyes as he regarded Issei. "I'll call the ambulance when she pulls a knife out on you and cuts you trooper off."

Issei visibly shuttered at Sam's words, instinctively protecting his crotch in response. "Dude, do not put that image in my head. I don't want to think what would happen if you end up right for a change."

"Oh, so we're just going to ignore the three dozens times I told you not to do something and, unsurprisingly, you got hurt after ignoring me?"

"Shut up!"

For the rest of the walk the two spent catching up on the past six years, from their grades to anything that stood out of the normal. Of course though neither had too much that they could say, most of the time they were going in a pattern of their everyday lives. And even with Sam's family ties, there aren't a whole lot of interesting things you can do when you're not allowed in most of the weapon labs.

"We're here." Sam spoke up, stopping as he saw the workshop. It was built mostly out of wood, pieces of rusted metal seen around the corners but nothing too special seen. It was a decent way in one of Kuoh's woods, making it hard to find and covered by foliage. Something that was perfect for Sam to work in.

On the inside, it was lined with walls of cement, dozens of old woodwork tools and drills scattered all over the place. Dust clung onto almost the whole area, showing just how long it had been abandoned for. It wasn't the best of sights, but Sam was grinning bright at the shed.

"Oh, wow." Issei coughed as the two entered the shed, dust going down his throat. "This place looks like it hasn't been touched in decades. Are you sure you can get charged from here? I don't think any of these outlets even work."

"Oh right, my dad never showed you." Sam said as he walked over to the left of the workshop, placing his right hand on the wall. A small pressure plate slid in for a second before getting pushed out, opening a doorway to a small metal room.

"Whoa."

"Dad had the walls widened in order to fit this in without rising too much suspicion." Sam explained as they walked in. He then found a keypad and entered in **'7086'** before placing his thumb against a scanner. "He had me create my own code as well to make sure no one could get in." The door then closed and Issei felt them start to descend, realizing that they were in an elevator. "I'll probably give you your own code and scan, since I won't always be able to head up and meet you if I'm busy."

"Okay, but where are we going?" Issei asked, looking over to Sam.

The boy smiled as he looked back at Issei, placing his hand on his shoulder as the door opened. "My own personal lab."

"No. Way." Issei managed to say as they walked out the elevator. The lab was fully stocked with the latest tech available, from automated construction gear to machinery Issei couldn't even guess what they did. The room was mostly white, but had sections of grey to keep the room from being too bright. There were also several monitors across the lab, all of which Issei saw were completely holographic. "Dude… when did this…"

"Get put in?" Sam finished, walking to a monitor on the wall before swiping across it. "My dad had everything set up and built about a year ago while I was on a science retreat. Cleaver bastard almost completely got this past me until about a month ago. He planned on sending me back here, so he made sure I had a little place a couple meters below Kuoh's surface to work."

"Little is putting it lightly." Issei said as he looked across the room, guessing that the place was at least a hundred yards long. "This place is huge."

"Yeah, he might have gone a little overboard in the design." Sam nodded as he finished working on the hologram, tapping on the wall that brought out a large cable. "Hey Ise, help me for a minute here?"

"Sure man, what's up?" Ise asked as he walked over to Sam, who pulled off his jacket and shirt when he was close. When they were off, Issei saw once again the same strange device at the center of Sam's chest as he had back then. A circular glowing machine no bigger than a softball with a ring shaped gap outlining the center. The very invention Sam's father created a week after Sam was born: an arc reactor scaled down with a palladium core.

Sam then pressed down on the device, twisting it to the left until a click was heard. He then pulled the reactor out, revealing the metal casing in his chest to house it. "See that table over there?" Sam asked weakly as he put the cable into his chest's opening, sounding better once it was locked in. "There's a housing unit for my reactor? Put it in there face up, it'll start charging once it's in correctly."

"Um… alright." Issei said as he carefully grabbed the reactor from Sam. It was small, fitting perfectly into his palm, but he knew that it was so much more than what it looked. And when he went over to the table, he was extremely careful as he placed the reactor into the unit, pulling his hand back quickly as a glass casing formed over it. "How long does the charging take?"

"Well since it's been awhile now, I'd say it'd take an hour before it's fully charged. And after that we'll have to replace the palladium chip with a new one."

"Wait, you have to do that?"

"It's something that's new is all." Sam responded, waving his hand in a carefree manner. "That chip is almost as old as me, and since it's been slowly building up neutron damage it needs to be changed. We can't have the ring, the part that properly regulates the electricity, start taking in too much power or else I'll suddenly start getting shocked with 3 gigajoules per second."

"Oh damn." Issei whistled. "…What's a gigajoule?"

"Gigajoule is a measurement of electricity, to the ninth power to be exact." Sam answered, sighing as he saw Issei's confusion grow. "Okay, Imagine a lightning bolt hitting a lightning rod. Now imagine two fifths of that bolt getting lost in the ground while the rest remain in the rod."

"Okay?"

"Alright, the amount of electricity in that rod is the amount my reactor produces in a second."

"Holy shit dude!" Issei jumped back from the table, looking back to Sam in shock. "You've had that much power going through your heart!?"

"Sometimes I forget I didn't explain all of this to you." Sam chuckled as he tapped below the cable on his chest. "That metal wall in my chest is a regulator. I have just the right amount of energy pulsed through so that my heart doesn't shut down on me and I slowly die of angina."

"I thought your lungs collapse if you run out?"

"Whichever comes first." Sam shrugged. "You know how it works, this shouldn't be too much of a lesson to you."

"Man, I forgot how bad you could end up with your reactor gone." Issei muttered as he looked at the arc reactor, watching it glow bright and dim as it was charging. "You could suffocate or your blood won't flow properly, not to mention all the other ways your body might have changed."

"Best not to think about it."

Issei's phone then went off, the boy pulling it out to see a text from Matsuda. "Looks like the guys finally came up with something to do. How does bowling sound to you?"

Sam smirked as he closed his eyes. "As long as we aren't going to karaoke I'll do whatever. I'm no pro at bowling but it sounds like a fun time."

"You seemed rather excited meeting Samuel, more than I was expecting." Souna said as she and Denica walked out of Kuoh Academy.

The blonde shrugged in response as she folded her arms behind her back, smirking as she looked into the sky. "What can I say, he seems to be rather interesting. I mean you've read the new articles too, he made his first step into artificial intelligence when he was six. Rather impressive if I'd say so myself."

"Impressive as it may be, you should limit the time you interact with him." Souna responded. "As far as we're concerned, he's just a normal human. If you aren't careful I have no doubt that he'll get dragged into the world we live in. And I doubt he'll make it far as a human."

"You worry way too much Sona." Denica chimed. "The guy's a super genius, I bet he's even smarter than you and Rias put together. And as he's clearly shown, he's rather adventurous on his own. He's looking for answers to everything that needs it, so I have no doubt he'll stumble into our world all on his own. Why not just show him a little early?"

"Absolutely not." Sona said, opening the door to the old school building before the two entered. "And what did I say about using my real name in public?"

"There's almost no one on the grounds though?"

"Someone could still hear you."

"Sona, you just put a u in your name." Denica said with a half lidded stare. "Even if they did hear they'd probably think I just messed up saying your name or something. It isn't that far out of reach. Now if I said Sitri instead of Shitori, then people would start asking questions."

"Questions that we should be avoiding all together."

"Sona, if anyone figures out your real name from Souna, then they clearly knew you before coming here."

"Not if they're unfamiliar with my appearance." Sona countered as they approached the ORC clubroom door, the Kaichou knocking on it twice.

"Oh yeah, cause that totally makes sense. "Hey, you know that Devil heiress we're looking for? You know, the one from one of the three strongest Pillars that symbolize the perfection of water magic among their race? Yeah we somehow have no idea what she, an important figure for the Devil's future, looks like so we'll have to specifically listen for the name Sona!"" Denica mocked, pitching her voice low to sound like a man. "Cause that's totally what will happen."

"Two year." Sona sighed as she closed her eyes, holding off a headache as she remained calm. "Two years of this and I still can't figure out a way to complete zone you out. Why was I the one tasked with watching over you?"

"Because your parents know how bad you need more friends."

The door then opened for the two, revealing Akeno Himejima to the pair. The girl had a similar figure as Denica, with long black hair tied back and violet eyes. Although unlike Akeno, Denica's appearance leaned more towards European ethnicity, hers clearly Asian. "Sona, Denica, welcome. Buchou was expecting you two."

"It'd be weird if she wasn't." Denica commented as they walked by. "I mean she was the one who told me to try and get information on Sam." The girl then looked around the room, noting that the entire club was here. "Hi Koneko, Yumi."

"Hello Denica." Yumi responded, giving a light bow from where she was sitting before looking into her book. Yumi Kiba had mid-length blonde hair with bright blue eyes, C-cup breasts and pale white skin, appearing much like a princess from an old fairy tale. And although she is currently only a first year, her appearance and reputation for being kind and respectful has given her the title of "Princess of Kuoh among the school body. But among those here now, she was known as Rias' Knight, and a skilled swordswoman.

"…Sup?" Koneko Toujou quietly said as she ate from a plate of sweets. The girl was much smaller than the rest of the room, seeming as if she was barely 10. Her white hair and gold eyes made her face stand out much more, giving shine to her otherwise emotionless expression. Although unlike everyone else here, she was still in middle school and wouldn't be in Kuoh Academy until a year later.

"I'm sorry if this came off as a chore to you." Rias Gremory, the president of the Occult Research Club said from behind her desk. Out of all of the girls in the school, she was quite literally the most popular one there. From her long, bright red hair, greenish-blue eyes, flawless skin and large breasts. To just about everyone she seemed virtually perfect and special.

"So then Rias." Denica started as she plopped down on Koneko's couch right next to her, draping her arm over the side as she relaxed. "What's the details that you want to know about the new genius in town? I have to warn you that it's mostly limited, I couldn't get much information."

"You weren't able to have a long enough hold on him?" Rias asked, seeming surprised at the news.

"Oh no, he never once complained or pulled his arm away from me for most of the trip." Denica responded, smirking as she motioned to her breasts. "I mean, who could say no to having their arm in between these babies?"

"Focus Denica." Sona stated, getting an exaggerated sigh from Denica.

"Fiiiiiine." She whined. "My synch with my Sacred Gear wasn't able to fully process his mind, but I could pick up on all of his emotions just fine and a few thoughts. I couldn't probe his mind like you wanted me to since I'm still figuring out how to get the power to work for me."

"It's alright Denica, a Sacred Gear like yours can take years to master, even with stress and drive." Rias said, intertwining her fingers in front of her mouth as she leaned forward. "So please explain to me what you were able to gather, anything about why he came here now?"

"I couldn't get a good read on that, but he was broadcasting trace amounts of excitement, nostalgia, anxiety and paranoia for most of the tour." Denica explained. "They faded a grew every once in awhile, but not enough to give any real hint as to why. Oh, and he also felt extremely weak."

"Compared to us, that shouldn't be important." Sona stated, getting a hush from Denica.

"Not like that, but like he was getting exhausted easier and easier as time went on. It was slow, barely noticeable but it got worse as time went on."

"He has a weak internal system." Rias spoke up. "When he was born, his heart and lungs didn't develop appropriately and he was slowly dying. His father worked and found a solution to it, but now that his organs have fully developed, they require whatever he made."

"That's what's in his chest, isn't it?" Denica asked back. "I felt a good amount of power there, but I couldn't figure out why."

"It took over a decade of digging, but my father was able to get some notes on Alexander Ddeallus' research. It's a battery of sorts, running his internal system to work just fine. We don't have many details, but we know he has to wear it at some point. We haven't figure out if he has to wear it for hours or for days but it jumpstarts his organs."

"Well, maybe there's something wrong with it and he's spending the time he has to be with his old friends?"

Rias shook her head at Denica's idea, knowing well it was out of the picture. "Alexander wouldn't let anything happen to Samuel. If there was something wrong then he would have discovered it by now and fixed it. No, I believe it has to be something else."

"Well then we have to use what we know and eliminate false outcomes." Sona spoke, standing next to Rias' desk. "We're aware he's anxious and paranoid, but his health isn't the problem. And it's certainly out of the picture that he's here simply to finish high school here. It would have been no different than finishing it in America."

"Could he be running from something?" Akeno suggested.

"Doubt it." Denica shot down the idea. "His anxiety and paranoia would be way higher if he was expecting someone was after him. Plus his excitement would be down if he was close to people he was worried over. No, running is out of the question."

"Perhaps he's looking for someone?" Yumi interjected. "Japan's had a steady increase in crime after getting too open with international trading. Maybe he's expecting to find some sort of criminal that his father's been looking for?"

"Maybe, but why here? Why Kuoh when the crime hasn't been happening aside from a small purse snatch or two?" Rias questioned. "If they got something from Ddeallus, then they'd have to be a part of an organization to have a chance. And we haven't seen organized crime come even close to here."

"…Random violence has though." Koneko spoke up, surprising everyone as she held her phone out. On it was a map of Japan, and on it was dozens of red dots coming from the north of the country slowly making its way down.

"That's right." Akeno said, remembering all the reports that were coming in the past three months. "There's been sprees of killings going on around Japan, mostly close to the train's route."

"Really close even." Denica commented as she shifted around, laying her head on Koneko's lap to look up at her phone. "Looks like they never go past a few miles from the railroads."

"And Samuel decides to just go right in the middle of the path." Yumi continued. "The guy credited as the smartest of our generation, who has a severe medical condition. I can't help but feel like he's up to something big."

"Oh, you don't say? I couldn't imagine what he, the son of the world's best weapon developer, could possibly be up to that's big enough to jump into the middle of a country with a rise in crime." Denica stated sarcastically, rolling her eyes as Sona and Rias gave her tired glares. "Alright, alright, I'll just say what we all were thinking at the start but were too cautious to assume. I think he's making some kind of fancy new weapon."

"But the question that's being raised is what kind?" Sona asked, shifting her glasses as she thought. "Obviously it has to be down in scale, there's no way Japan would let him fire any massive explosive."

"And he came here for it, so it has to be something more held and to the point." Rias added. "But what, a gun?"

"Seems a like a downgrade for someone with such a reputation."

"Perhaps it's something like that glove he had. A Taser of without the need of wires of direct contact?"

"That'd be too risky. If he misses it'll be over before it started."

"Maybe he's making a fancy suit." Denica joked among their ideas, getting completely ignored in the process.

' _Well fine then. Don't want to know go ahead and keep guessing.'_ She pouted as she closed her eyes, resting on Koneko's lap.

"…You know what he's actually building, don't you?" Koneko muttered to the girl, getting a cheeky smile in return.

"I do, but if they're going to ignore me when I'm joking then they'll ignore me when I'm serious." Denica then yawned as she continued to smile. "You know how it goes, take things too seriously and it'll end up biting you. They gotta loosen up more if they're gonna go far."

"…Is that you or "him" talking?"

Denica then opened her eyes for a second, a somber look on her face as she looked to the roof. "You know, I can't really tell. But either way, I think it sounds really good." Denica then winced for a second, a massive migraine hitting her after the long day. "Hey Koneko? Can I take a nap on your lap for a bit? My Sacred Gear's side effects are kicking in."

"…You owe me a parfait."

"Thanks Koneko." Denica grinned before closing her eyes, the glow in her eyes dimming just as she passed out. She instantly became dead weight, signaling that she was out like a rock.

"…"A fancy suit"?" The white haired girl thought out loud as she went back to her sweets, allowing her seniors think on what to think of the Ddeallus' appearance.

By the end of the night, the group had come up with little to think of. And by the time the night was out, they had to drop the subject as their work was about to start. And just like them, Sam was preparing for his own set of work.

Back at the Hyoudous' house, Sam was leaning back on his bed with the lights off. In his hand was his phone, the screen bright as he poked and swiped across it. He seemed focused, yet was smirking smugly as he moved his finger. Eventually, he finished his movements and placed the phone next to him, a detailed hologram of what appeared to be a suit of armor appeared.

With a simple movement of his fingers, the hologram split into each individual part before reforming into the finished project. It was slick, smooth across the whole way with a silver chassis. Seeing the finished details in person, Sam's smirk turned into a grin, his excitement growing as he tapped on A.V.O.N.'s icon. "Hey A.V.O.N.?"

" _Yes sir?"_

"Set up a schedule for the process of building the Mark 1. I honestly can't wait to get this thing made."

" _Downloading all files and preset features from previous projects. If we are to start right away, I recommend starting the building process after your last class. Once the first design is made, I should be able to get the machinery build any different suits or add any extra features."_

"Oh man." Sam sighed in content, turning off his phone before turning to face the ceiling. "This is going to be the start of something amazing." He then closed his eyes, preparing himself for the embrace of sleep.

.

.

.

His eyes then suddenly snapped open, a thought entering his head. "I'm going to have to make a working exit from the lab. Damn it."


	3. Catching the Train

**(A/N): There was a small update, nothing real large. Just a change to Sam's hero name from Iron Man to something that would at least distance him a bit more from Tony Stark's original character. It was a recommendation, and I honestly agreed after rereading the chapter myself that it would be better to change it.**

* * *

"Ahh, that's refreshing." Sam sighed as he finished drinking an energy drink, throwing the can into a disposal bin. He was currently in his lab, making last minute adjustments to a series of programmed systems. In front of him were over a dozen of holograms of data, his eyes going back and forth as he read through everything he had set up. "Looks like that's about everything. Are you able to download this in to the suit today A.V.O.N?"

" _This is several terabytes of data sir."_ The A.I. responded, appearing as Sam walked over to the lab's corner to grab his school uniform. _"It will be done by the time you're back from school… in three hours."_

"Oh damn, I'm late?" Sam asked as he rubbed his eyes, changing into the uniform. He had buttoned up both his shirt and jacket up. With his chest reactor fully charged it was glowing much brighter than before. So as a way to hide it, he had to cover it with two layers of clothes. It wasn't so much as it wasn't allowed, he just figured that it'd be less distracting for class if his chest wasn't glowing like a Christmas tree.

" _For the tenth school day in a row, sir."_ A.V.O.N. answered, her voice sarcastic as she did. _"I've redirected all of the calls from the Student Council to the Hyoudou family to avoid them knowing. However, it sounds like they're getting rather upset over it."_

"Hmm, can't imagine why." Sam said as he finished changing. He's been in Kuoh for little over a month now, and has had gotten a mix of a good and bad reputation. To go with the good, Sam's arrival allowed him to update most of the academy's software and even offers to tutor students during his free period later in the day.

However, he's constantly late for his morning classes. At first it was mostly by a few minutes, but as he worked more and more on his project the later he was coming in. Today would mark the longest at three hours. Which meant he was expecting another earful from the Student Council when he made it there.

" _I'll send in an excuse as to why you're late. Again._ " The A.I. nagged at Sam, getting a chuckle from him before he left the lab and headed for the school.

It was only a couple minutes of walking, so as he made his way he stopped by a vendor and bought a bag of vegetables for lunch. As he walked to the academy he pulled out a green pepper from the bag and started to eat it like an apple, getting glances from passers as he did.

As he reached Kuoh Academy, he mentally sighed as he saw two students at the front gate, several onlookers watching. _'Oh great, looks like I'm at the center of attention today.'_ He raised an eyebrow as he saw a band across the two girl's sleeves, reading "Disciplinary Committee" on them. _'Oh goodie, it gets worse.'_

"You're late." Haia Norita, the head of the Disciplinary Committee stated as he got close enough. Haia was a second year student like Sam, and that's where the similarities ended. She had dark brown hair that went down her back, well kept and set to perfection. Her eyes were a deep green, a misleading calm in the color despite the constant glare she seemed to have. She was also an example of beauty, with a pretty face, wide hips and C-cup breasts. She'd likely of been one of the popular girls in school if it weren't for her rather default angry personality. That, and she's more likely to kick your ass than to have an average conversation with you, even her own committee members were too scared to speak when around her.

"Congrats, you figured it out." Sam chuckled as he tossed in his hand up, juggling it in his free hand. "You wanna a reward or something? I don't have much on me, but you can't really get enough vegetables right? You might even need some, it really helps giving life to that dead pale skin you have."

The comment caused the girl's left eye to twitch, but she otherwise kept her cold stare. "You've been late for ten days in a row now. I'm not sure how your schools in your country do things, but we have a rather simple set of rules. Most of which you've already broken."

"One, I actually have hardly broken a single rule." Sam corrected, smirking as he saw the girl's eye twitch again. "I know the rules fairly well actually, since I do enjoy the wonders of learning. For example, in Kuoh Academy the mandatory amount of hours needed to attend per day is at least an average of two. Now if your grades are B or lower, that is a very different story as you have to take the usual full day of courses. I however, am acing all of my courses, even the ones I'm missing."

"Two…" Sam stopped for a second to bite from his pepper, throwing wood into the fire that was Haia's anger as he spoke with his mouth full. "I have always skipped classes for a certain amount of time when I go to school. I do my learning best when working on it, so even if I were in class I'd be going off on my own wheels. No teacher like experience I say."

He then started to walk past Haia, swallowing the food in his mouth as he did. "Oh, and as for "my country", I've lived in Japan for a large chunk of my life. I earned the right to citizenship and consider THIS country more of a home rather than America. So if that's all settled I'd head to cla-agh!"

Before he could fully pass her, Haia grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, using only one arm to keep him in place. "Article 6 Section C Paragraph 4: "When the head of the Disciplinary Committee is speaking to a recent transfer student, said student is to listen diligently and isn't allowed to leave until given permission." Do you remember that rule, Mr. Ddeallus?"

"Mr. Ddeallus?" Sam winced, dropping his green pepper while keeping his smirk. "My, my, how formal of you head Disciplinary Committee. I must command a good degree of respect to be referred to by my family name?"

"Unlike you, I have dignity and integrity." The girl responded, pulling on his arm a bit more to add a second of pain. "As a student who weaseled his way into the academy, I owe you bare minimum amount of respect that's required for a student."

"You have an interesting way of showing it." He commented. "Who's your inspiration, The Punisher?"

"Do you have an off switch somewhere?" She asked. "It'd make dealing with you so much easier."

"I do actually." He smirked, tapping his reactor. "Just rip this 3 gigajoule battery out of me and I cut right off. Although there are others way to get me to-"

"One more word, and I will gladly rip whatever is powering your chest."

"As interesting as it would be to see what an arc reactor looks smaller, I don't think that'd be a good idea." The crowd that was watching started to move aside as Denica walked past them, stopping just as she reached the three.

"What are you doing here Denica?" Haia questioned. "You're supposed to be in class right now. You don't have a free period for another hour."

"True, true. But as I sat in class I looked out the window and saw you waiting here and went "oh shit, Sam's gonna get his ass kicked." And while any other guy I'd be willing to watch a good ol' ass kicking, I figured it'd be a good idea to stop this one." Denica explained, showing no hesitation or fear, unlike the Disciplinary Chair's escort. "I mean, we are talking about the guy here whose dad is famous for improving and revolutionizing weapons of mass destruction. I'd say pissing off his son, who I remind you is believed to have even more potential as he is, like you plan on."

"She's right." Sam spoke up. "If killing was my thing I'd probably be able to make nukes with enough radiation that Professor Banner would have centuries worth of research to focus on."

"Threats from you seem rather pointless, considering your current position." Haia said, putting emphasis in her meaning by tightening her grip on his wrist.

"Then take a threat from me." The whole area went dead silent as Denica grabbed Haia's forearm, a dark presence being felt despite Denica's smiling. "You do anything further here, and I'm afraid you'll have to learn how to work with only a single arm." A deathly silent stare down then ensued, no one daring to even breathe as the two girls gave heated glares to one another.

' _Maybe I went a little overboard here.'_ Sam thought, starting to wish he had just came in at the normal time. He didn't know why, but he felt like he was in a lot greater risk right now than just getting a twisted arm.

"Fine." After a minute of staring, Haia relented, releasing Sam's arm. The boy quickly got a foot away from the two, rubbing his wrist as he tried to numb the pain. "He gets off this time. But if he shows up later than the time ALLOWED, even by a minute, I will exercise my full authority in discipline."

"Of course." Denica responded, smiling brightly as if nothing had happened.

"Hehe, you caved in to the student council." Sam chuckled, instantly getting silenced as the Disciplinary Chair kicked his chin and knocked him over.

"Get to class." She said before walking away, her escort following after.

"Sam!" Denica kneeled down to the downed boy in concern, turning him over to hold his head up. "Are you okay!?"

"Jokes… on her." Sam winced, smirking as he looked over to Denica. "I totally saw her panties."

"Seriously?" The blonde asked, giving Sam a half lidded stare. "You just got drop kicked by a martial artist whose won two regional championships, and all you can say is that you saw her panties?"

.

.

.

"What color were they?"

* * *

"Man, she did not hold back in that kick did she?" Issei asked as he and Sam walked out of the elevator into Sam's lab. "I mean, I heard she's won championships before, but it sounds like she didn't put too much effort into that kick."

"Certainly didn't feel like it." Sam said as he rubbed the bandage covering his cheek, the cold sensation from it causing him to itch. "That kick was so sudden, I didn't even see it coming. I wonder if she's a mutant or something, that'd explain how she was able to kick that quickly."

"No way dude, they have DNA tests to make sure humans and mutants aren't participating in the same leagues." Issei shot the idea down, bringing up the rule. "A human fighting a mutant is likely to end in the mutant's favor. Actually, it probably wouldn't even be a contest."

"Not all mutants have strength or speed enhancements dude." Sam started, going to one of his holo-panels. "Also why do you know tha-never mind. I think I might have an idea or two as to why."

"Don't give me that look." Issei responded, seeing Sam's judging stare. "That's some of the tamer stuff I watch. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff me and the guys watch."

"Separately?"

.

.

.

"I'm disappointed in you man." Sam sighed, shaking his head before going to work on the hologram. "A.V.O.N., has the data finished transferring yet?"

The A.I.'s form then took shape, appearing as a continuous sphere of spinning data on the table next to Issei. _"The data has taken a little longer than I expected sir. I had forgotten to account for the F.A.U.'s data input."_

"Fau?" Issei asked, looking to the A.I.'s form. "What is that?"

" _F.A.U., Mr. Hyoudou, not fau. F.A.U. stands for Flight Assistance Unit. A program Mr. Ddeallus created to assist him when he's in air."_ The A.I. corrected.

"Man, why didn't Sam give you an actual form?" Issei whined. "You has such an angelic voice, I bet you would look like a smoking babe."

" _What is wrong with my current appearance?"_ A.V.O.N. asked, her tone genuine as she moved up to in front of Issei. _"This image is meant to serve as a means to be perfectly efficient. There is not excess data being used to shape and I can access everything in .000001 seconds."_

"Well it's just… you're kind of… nothing." Issei relented, feeling pressured into shutting up at the A.I.'s voice. He then blinked twice, looking up to Sam as he closed the hologram between his hands and walked across the lab. "Wait, in the air? As in, flying?"

"That's what flight is, yes."

"Why would you have a program for that?" Issei asked. "Last time I checked, you don't own any private jets, well, aside from the ones your dad uses to send you from place to place."

"You're right on that." Sam responded as he walked up to a scanner, placing his hand on it. It glowed bright for a second before dinging, a part of the wall moving around to reveal a large capsule. "But what I'll flying's a lot more… subtle." The capsule then opened up, and Issei gapped at what he saw.

A suit of armor, shining bright silver stood within the capsule. It had a slightly bulk form, larger than both him and Sam yet wasn't over the top. Even with the added size, the design was slick and smooth, with only the bolts that held each piece together taking away the flawless surface. And at the center of the chest, an opening that lined up with Sam's reactor.

"What… is that?"

"This?" Sam chuckled. "This right here is my secret project. The most advance suit of armor ever created. Wanna see me put it on?"

"Hell yeah!"

* * *

"So… how does it feel?" Issei asked, standing next to Sam as he almost had the full suit on. With it he stood a few inches taller, going up to around 6'3. And with it on, the centerpiece glowed bright, his reactor being held kept back by a thick piece of glass.

Sam rotated his shoulders a bit, getting a true feel for it while holding the faceplate in his right hand. "A little tight at the shoulders, and I probably should do something on the chest. Other than that? Fits like a glove."

"Probably a little more snug than a glove." Issei said, remembering that Sam had to take his clothes off and put on a skintight jumpsuit. "So what can this thing do?"

"Well, not too much at the moment." Sam answered, putting the mask on, the eyes of it glowing blue as his HUD appeared for him. "I've only designed this suit with flight in mind. The boots have thrusters at the feet, and my palms have repulsors to help with stability. Other than that? It should have enhanced strength and reflexes, bullet-proof exterior and heightened movement speed."

"And given how you are, no weapons I'd guess?" Issei threw out, knowing well that Sam wouldn't install weapons into this suit.

"Nope, and if I did I'd only put in riot control grade gear." The boy said, his voice becoming more mechanical and deeper. "Oh, and I put a voice modulator in this thing. Thought it'd be good if everyone didn't know who was flying a suit of metal in town."

"Sounds about right." Issei nodded. "So what now then? Going to do a test run in here?"

"I was thinking of having a little more room." He responded as he turned to the farthest wall. "A.V.O.N., you integrated in yet?"

" _I have just finished sir."_ The A.I. answered, her image appearing in the HUD for a second before getting moved to the upper right corner. _"Shall I open up the tunnel for you?"_

"That'd be great." Sam then turned to Issei, waving him back as the wall moved and revealed a secret tunnel. "You might want to step back a bit. And maybe cover your ears." When he did as told, Sam placed his feet together and faced his palms down. "Alright A.V.O.N., shall we?"

" _With pleasure, sir."_ A second later, Sam's thrusters burned to life, causing him to hover for a few seconds to get a feel of things. As he did, the free plates of the suit twitched and moved, signaling that his airbrakes were freed and ready if they were to be needed.

"Let's go!" Leaning forward, Sam took off and let his thrusters free, moving at high speeds through the tunnel.

" _Mr. Hyoudou."_ A.V.O.N. called out, her hologram forming at the center of the lab.

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be in his suit?"

" _I am software, Mr. Hyoudou. I can be transferred into anything and leave copies of myself. I am in all of Mr. Ddeallus' technology as a base program."_ She explained. _"Now if you'd like to watch from the suit's HUD, please come over here."_

"I can watch? Shit yeah!" He cheered as he ran over to the A.I., a screen popping up next to her to show the live feed.

"Woohoo!" Sam laughed in the suit, following the twisted tunnel's path while keeping as straight of a path as he could. As he was nearing the end of it, it opened up to reveal the sunny sky, and his true speed was shown as he flew out into the sky. "Oh man, this is awesome! Ise, you seeing this!?"

"Yeah, I'm watching from one of your screens." Issei responded, staring in awe as he saw the aerial view of Kuoh. "Man, I never saw town from the air. It looks so much… smaller from there."

"Well then let's get a closer look!" Doing a corkscrew, Sam changed his path and began to fly down towards town, getting close enough to be between the buildings.

"Dude, be careful!" Issei warned as Sam dodged a building, too excited to be worried. "You're going to hit something if you stay that low!"

Sam rolled his eyes in response, enjoying his new suit too much. "Oh relax. This is me we're talking about here. There's nothing to-whoa!" Before he could finish, his left foot hit against a sign, causing him to spin and grind against the side of a building. Recovering, he faced his palms toward the building and flew off higher, getting above the tallest buildings. "…That might leave a scratch."

"You think?"

" _Dispatch we have a…"_ Issei then began to hear radio chatter, causing him to look to his immediate right to see a screen with wavelength features.

"Hey Sam, what's the wavy stuff popping up?"

"Oh that? That's just my suit connecting to the radio waves." Sam answered, taking off higher into the air. "I adjusted my suit to pick up any radio signals in Japan. You know, just to hear what's going on."

"It sounds like it's all police chatter." Issei added. "Dude, are you breaking the law!?"

"It's not breaking the law if they don't know about it." Sam answered casually. "Don't worry, I'm not planning anything shady. It's just that I'll likely enter a no-fly zone at some point and I'd like to be aware if the military is sending something after me."

"Sam, that's still risky. If they manage to figure out you're tracing them, that'll lead them to us! Me and my parents!"

"That won't happen Issei."

"How can you-" Issei was interrupted as a radio signal went off.

" _Eh hahahahaha!"_ A loud, psychotic laugh was heard from the other side, the wave signal appearing in both of the boys' feed. _"Oh man this is a blast~! Hey operator guy, can this bad boy go any faster?"_

" _Sir please! The train isn't supposed to be going at this speed so close to a town!"_ A panicked voice took over, the man sounding terrified. _"This train goes right through the middle of town, and at this speed it won't be able to stay on the tracks when the turn comes! You have to-"_ A sickening crunch was then heard, followed by the first voice's laughter.

" _Laaaaaaame~! Come on you multi-ton beast! Let's let loose!"_

"A.V.O.N., where is that signal coming from?" Sam questioned, getting the location set right away. "Issei, I want you to keep a track on it while I go."

"What are you going to do?" Issei asked.

"Something probably stupid." He responded, changing course and heading right towards the radio signal. "A.V.O.N., I want you to do voice recognition and figure out who was talking from the Japanese database."

" _Searching… identities found."_ A picture then popped up on Sam's HUD, an Asian man in his forties with black hair and brown eyes. _"The one that was warning of the train's speed is a Nagasashi Tokomak, a train conductor that's been working on the Central Train way for a decade. As for the second one…"_ A picture of an European man then came up, with orange hair and green eyes who appeared to be in his early twenties. _"His name is Cletus Kasady, a foreigner that's spent 17 years in Japan."_

"Anything I should know about him?" Sam asked as he approached the signal's source, seeing the electric train going at high speeds. Far faster than anyone sane would have it going at it's distance from a town with a curve in the tracks.

" _Mr. Kasady has been reported to have accidentally killed his grandmother and family dog when he was only 7. After that his mother was killed by his father and he was sent to St. Estes Home for Boys for a year. He then killed the disciplinarian administration and a young girl before burning the orphanage to the ground."_

"What the hell is a guy like that doing here?" Issei asked, turning to the A.I. as she explained.

" _Just a year ago, Mr. Kasady was released from prison on parole, but had reportedly killed his officer and took their identity to escape North America. Attempts at tracking him had been insufficient due to Mr. Kasady buying over a dozen tickets to different countries around the world, and bribing an identical number of people to take the plane rides that he didn't. Around the same time, a man at Tokyo had been reportedly gone missing, not being discovered until just last week."_

"So we're dealing with an insane wack job, got it." Sam stated, carefully flying towards the train and landing just behind the lead car. He then knelt down to the train's link to the rest of the cars and punched it, ripping the link off and disconnecting the front car.

"Dude, what are you doing!?"

"Relax Issei." Sam said, watching the train carts as they began to slow down. "With the lead cart disconnected, the others' automatic breaks will kick in. This way stopping the train will be a lot easier. Remember what I taught you about momentum?"

"The lighter the object… the less force it carries and the less needed to stop it!"

"Exactly." Sam chuckled, turning to open the door. "I couldn't risk stopping the train fully connected this close to Kuoh. But if my calculations are correct I should be able to stop it now if I pull the brakes." As he opened the door, Sam recoiled back slightly, seeing a gruesome sight before him. On the ground, lying in a puddle of blood with his head cracked open, was Nagasashi. "No…"

"Oh god." Issei gagged as he looked away from the screen, holding a hand to his mouth to avoid throwing up. "That's just sick."

"Kasady isn't here." Sam noted as he walked up to the man's corpse, kneeling next to him for a second to pay respect.

" _Sir, the radio is still active."_ A.V.O.N. spoke. _"Just above where Nagasashi is. I believe he activated the radio in hopes of warning one of the stations before he was killed."_

"You gave your life to save others." Sam whispered, closing his eyes as he placed a hand on Nagasashi's chest, his face beaten in past recognition. "I promise you it won't be for nothing." Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Sam stood up and opened his eyes, looking over to the train's main console. "Okay, so the regular brakes won't work, so I'll have to pull the emergency-" His words then got caught in his throat as he saw the emergency brake lever was missing, appearing to have been ripped out. "Where did it-?"

"Surprise!" Sam couldn't react in time as the metal lever struck the back of his head. The force wasn't enough to knock him over, but it did stun him and cause him to wince. Turning, he held his arm out to block a second swing, seeing Cletus with the lever in hand. "Oh ho! What the hell are you!?" He asked, a crazed look in his eyes as he grinned. "You some kind of special tin can?"

"Not even close." Sam responded as he caught the lever when Cletus tried to hit him again, ripping it out of his grip. With his free hand, he punched Cletus in the jaw, knocking him down and onto the ground unmoving. "A.V.O.N.?"

" _He's still alive sir."_ The A.I. answered. _"Although he may be down for a few minutes."_

"That's all the time I need." He said as he looked out the front windshield, throwing the lever to the floor as he took note of the distance. "How much time until this train reaches that turn?"

" _Not long sir."_ The A.I. stated as a timer went up for Sam, showing that he only had five minutes.

"Damn it, this bad." He gritted his teeth as he took a step back before activating his thrusters, flying through the window and headed past the train. When he got a mile away from the vehicle, he deployed his air brakes and forced himself to stop, skidding on his feet as he turned around.

"Sam…" Issei groaned as he collected himself, listening in to the radio chatter. "Authorities in Kuoh are in the process of getting people out of the area, but they won't be able to get them out in time. Do you have any ideas on stopping the train?"

"Well, with the brakes destroyed there's only one other thing that can be done." Sam explained, eyeing the train as it rapidly approached.

"What?"

Sam then held his hands out, his air brake platting opening up to serve as resistance support. "Stop it with greater force." He planted his feet as deep into the ground as he could, wincing and looking away as the train was just about to strike him. When it finally hit, Sam grunted in pain, his suit taking most of the damage but was being pushed back rapidly.

"Sam, what are you doing!?" Issei shouted in pain, seeing Sam's vitals flare as he tried to fight against the plane. "This much stress is going to wear out your heart!"

"Simple… Physics!" Sam grunted against clenched teeth, activating his boot thrusters and paralleled his body to the ground. "If I can just… push with enough force… I'll be able to stop… it!"

"Sam, I get you're trying to help people, but you have to listen to me dude! I don't understand half of these things, but I can tell that these readings are bad! You're going to collapse if you don't get out of there!"

"I… can't!" Sam shouted, turning his head back to face the train. "This is what… this suit was made for!" He then began to transfer power in his suit, sending all non-essential power into the thrusters. As it was being done, he placed his head against the vehicle, noting that his limbs were slowly denting into the train. "It can… take it! It'll get me through this because that's what it's made for!" The full power then entered his thrusters, allowing Sam to slowly gain more and more force over the train as it was getting dangerously close to Kuoh.

"Sam, you have to listen to me! Your heart is-!"

" _Trust me."_ A.V.O.N. spoke up to Issei, confusing him. " _Mr. Ddeallus is going to be safe, all of the power not going into the thrusters are going to his medical systems. My creator will be fine."_

"But he's…"

" _He's dedicated now. My creator had this suit made to help people in emergency situations just like this. The very reason I haven't done anything to divert him is because this was the whole point of his life's work. All of his previous inventions, the suit, me, it has all been to serve the purpose of protecting life. So trust me in assisting my creator."_

"You don't have to worry Ise!" Sam added in, making progress at stopping the train. "I can handle the train, I just need you to keep me posted on the progress. I can have A.V.O.N. properly manage my heart automatically, but I need you to give us an idea on your side."

"…Right." Issei relented, shifting the hologram to the active radio feed. "It looks like there's only a few people in the area, but in the panic there's still a few people either in cars or helping others get away. And there's an oil rig just next to the where the train will crash."

"Still have people to save." Sam muttered to himself, gritting his teeth as his thrusters went to full power. He was running out of track as he past by the fist building, signaling that he was now in Kuoh. "Damn it, we're not going to stop it in time."

" _Ten seconds to detraction!"_ A.V.O.N. warned. _"Two people are just at the edge, one appears to be bracing themselves for the imminent collision to attempt protecting the other."_

Sam's eyes snapped open at the news, realizing he had no time left. "Cut the thrusters!" The suit didn't even take a second to do so, which made both his feet stomp deep into the ground. Because of the momentum and his position, the train began to flip over him, detaching from the railing and going into the air. With it off the ground, Sam reactivated his thrusters and flew up, throwing his hands up and caught it on its side.

The initial weight caused him to lower, his feet just touching the ground as his suit adjusted to the weight. He looked over to his right, seeing the two people staring at him in shock. One was a little boy, no older than six that likely froze in fear at seeing the approaching train. The other caused Sam's eyes to widen in shock, as it was Haia standing as if she stood in front of the kid with her arms out. _'Well, this is awkward.'_

Using the suit's strength, he tossed the train a few feet away onto the road, avoiding any people or vehicles that were left. He sighed in relief and held a hand to his chest, feeling his systems reset and redistributes the power back around the suit. He then turned to Haia and the boy, making sure his voice modulator was powered before speaking. "Are you two okay?"

The girl nodded in response, unable to speak as she stared in shock at the man in armor. It almost seemed as something out of a science fiction movie, technology she had no idea was even possible by today's standards.

Hiding a sigh, he started to walk towards the train, knowing there was something that still had to be done. "Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." When he reached the train, he moved to the back and grabbed onto the door, ripping it off and throwing it behind him.

On the inside, Cletus was groaning as he slowly stood up, managing to suffer minimal injuries outside blood coming down his right arm from a shard of glass. "Man, my head." He then looked up, seeing Sam stomp over towards him. "Tin man! Showing yourself again huh!?"

"A.V.O.N., calculate the amount of force needed to knock him out." Sam ordered, getting the calculation immediately. And without a word, he slammed his fist into Cletus' face, knocking him down and out. "Night, night asshole." Grabbing the sociopath, he walked out of the train and laid him on the road, looking up to see a crowd of people start to form. "If anyone is able enough, this man needs to be watched until authorities arrive. He's the one who set the train off."

"I… I can watch him." Haia responded, shaking her shock off and kneeling next to Cletus.

"Good." The sound of police sirens going off caused Sam to look up, seeing the officers begin to move past the crowd. "Looks like I got to go." He then stood up, preparing to activate his thrusters before saying one last thing to Haia. "He should be out for a while, but if he wakes up before he's cuffed, give him a swift kick to the head. That should stun him long enough to be detained."

"Right." Haia nodded, sounding more and more like herself as time went. Sam then activated his thrusters, hovering up a bit and was about to fly off when the girl spoke up. "Wait!" He looked back down to her, motioning her to speak quickly. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" He echoed, not expecting the question. "Well… I'm…" When he noticed the officers get close, he knew he had to make it quick and get it over with. "I'm just an inventor!" He responded, flying off before the officers had reached the pair. He went high into the air, knowing he has to wait a few minutes before returning back to the lab. "Oh man I'm so going to feel this in the morning."

* * *

"Holy shit dude!" Issei shouted as Sam landed back in the lab, taking his helmet off and placing it on one of the tables. "That was insane!"

"You're telling me." He groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck, placing his hands on the table and taking a breather. "That was definitely not the way I was planning on warming the suit up. At least I figured out my current limits and where I can improve it."

"Dude, are you okay?" Issei asked, placing his hand on Sam's armored shoulder. "You look exhausted, and your suit took a bit of damage on its arms."

"I am tired, but nothing's wrong with my arms." Sam responded, giving Issei a smile to try and relax him. "The armor isn't bent into me, so I should be fine." He then turned to Issei, a thought coming across him. "I didn't stay to hear anything, how is the condition on everything?"

"Well, you might want to see for yourself." Issei said, turning as A.V.O.N. activated a hologram for them, a news broadcast playing on it.

"Just minutes ago, a train making a routine trip to Kuoh had nearly went off its tracks in town." The reporter explained, the damage blocked off by police tape. "The train conductor had used his radio to give a warning before being unfortunately killed by a Cletus Kasady." A video of the sociopath was then shown, still unconscious as he was cuffed and put into a police car. "Mr. Kasady had apparently hijacked the train and was aiming to crash it, but was luckily by a surprise no one was expecting."

The video of Cletus then changed, going to a vertical recording of Sam flipping the train and catching it, preventing Haia and the boy from being squashed. "Someone completely covered in armor, miraculously managed to stop the accident and minimize the damage."

"Putting it lightly." Sam commented, getting a chuckle from Issei in response.

"This man refused to identify him, but many of the witnesses have come to calling him "Metal Knight"."

"Metal Knight?" Sam echoed, raising an amused eyebrow. "I mean, it sounds interesting. Although I feel like that gives too much of a form of nobility on me. I mean, I didn't do much to get that vibe other than save a few people from a speeding train." He then waved his hand, deactivating the hologram and leaning back against the table.

"You're still going to keep the name, right?" Issei asked, getting a laugh from Sam in response.

"Sure, why not?"

* * *

"Whatever Metal Knight's intentions are, it seems that he is here to protect us." The reporter continued, smiling into the camera as they showed gratitude. "And I believe when I speak for everyone else when I say, thank you Metal Knight. You saved the lives of many innocent people."

"Metal Knight?" Haia mumbled to herself, sitting on the curb with a thoughtful expression on her face and her fingers intertwined. "I… I didn't think there was someone like you in Japan. Someone…" She then unraveled her hands, looking at her palms with a distant gaze. She then twitched her hands slightly, causing micro thorn-like structures to appear across her fingers. "Someone like me."


	4. Seismic Distress

**(A/N): First and foremost, I feel I need to apologize. This chapter took so long to write and I hardly feel like it's good enough for the patience. I've been so focused on my SAO story and was having a hard time writing for this. I'll try to be better with it, I'm just currently slow since I'm coming up with a introduction/slight world building arc before getting into the canon of DxD. And that often kills me for other stories. But I promise to do better, and I should since the main heavy lifting is thought through. I hope you enjoy and once again sorry for the wait.**

* * *

"But seriously, that guy has to be some kind of mutant." Matsuda said, walking next to Motohama, Issei and Alex as they were heading out for their free period. "He caught a train car that weighed several tons, he's got to have super strength."

"No way man, it has to be the suit." Motohama countered. "There's no way he could both have super strength and such a high intelligence to make that suit."

It's only been a week since Sam caught the runaway train, and since then all of Kuoh and even Japan have been trying to figure out who was under the suit. There have been at least a dozen theories on the subject, from Metal Knight being a mutant, a government project and someone went so far as to say he was an alien.

It was the least to say that Sam and Issei have been having a hard time from laughing their asses off at all of the ridiculous claims. But Sam had made it clear to Issei that it was best to keep his identity a secret, knowing that in the wrong hands the suit could become a dangerous weapon.

"Either way, he seems like quite the thinker." Sam spoke, holding his phone and typing in it. "Making technology that advanced isn't something you can do with just raw talent. You need a lot of experience and trial and error to figure everything out."

"Talking like he could make one."

"Hey, I was just saying." Sam responded. "Intelligence can only be increased through continuous work. It's like a muscle, the more you work it the stronger it becomes."

"Don't bore us with that crap."

"Seriously, you're putting way too much thought into it." All four boys jumped in confusion as they turned, seeing Kiryuu standing behind them. "The suit's clearly a government experiment, and the whole thing was a set up to make it look good."

"Then how would you explain that foreigner, Cletus Kasady?" Motohama questioned. "There's no way they'd get an actual criminal in on such a dangerous setup. Hell, someone actually died!"

"Controlled simulation." Aika responded. "They let him set everything up, stop the train, catch the bad guy and make the suit look like a tool for a hero. It's all pretty simple when you think about it. Publicity like that would be a killing for a preparation for unveiling the new weapon."

"It isn't a weapon." Sam stated, biting his tongue as he got everyone's attention. "IIIII mean… how could it be? The suit didn't seem capable of anything more than flying and enhancing strength. If it could do anything actually damaging wouldn't it of just destroyed the tracks and derail the train?"

"I mean, he has a point." Issei added, trying to help get attention off Sam. "If Metal Knight had anything resembling a weapon and was military trained, wouldn't he have killed Kasady after stopping him?"

"The guy flies around in a suit of metal and can stop a train, even without something like a gun or sword he's able to kill them easily." Matsuda countered. "The suit itself is a weapon, why would it even be questioned that it isn't?"

"Because unlike all of you, Metal Knight has something called discipline." Haia said as she came across the five, catching them off guard and scaring four of them. Sam was the only one not visibly nervous with the girl, his attention drawn to the box in her arms. "Since he has the self control to not kill, his suit becomes a tool of protection, rather than a weapon that kills."

"Rather high praise from you Disciplinary Chair." Sam commented. "I guess that makes some sense, didn't Metal Knight save you and that kid from getting crushed?" When Haia refused to comment, Sam simply hummed before noticing several beakers and glass jars in the box. "What ya carrying? Chemistry supplies?"

"Yes, I've been working in the lab and am bringing the supplies I bought from the school to my locker." The girl responded, glaring at Sam as she felt an implication in his words.

Sam simply raised his hands in mock surrender, rolling his eyes at the glare. "Just checking. Never know when the up-tight rule follower will suddenly become the rebellious rule breaker."

"I'm not as unruly as you." The Disciplinary Chair said before walking past them, Sam taking note of a few bandages wrapped around her hands. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get this put away before my next class starts. Make use of your free class, I expect you at your next class early since you have plenty of time."

"Sowing." Aika spoke when Haia was out of sight, getting everyone's attention. "Those bandages on her hands, I have no doubt they come from failures in sowing."

"How'd you know-?"

"Boys look at anything if it isn't normal on a girl." Aika interrupted Sam, lowering her glasses as she stared at him. "And you were looking at that box the whole time, so I figured you saw her hands as well. Or perhaps, you were trying to get a glimpse of her breasts while she had her hands full?"

"Nope." Sam simply hummed. "Now, back to the ridiculousness of Metal Knight being a military experiment…"

* * *

"Oh man, I almost lost it!" Sam laughed out as he and Issei took the elevator down to Sam's lab, entering in when they arrived.

"It was killing me that I couldn't tell them how stupid half of their plans were!" Issei added in, holding his gut as the two sat down on lounge chairs, a table between them with a hologram over it. "I mean seriously? A military experiment? There's no way anyone else could even come close to making a suit like yours!"

"No kidding." Sam chuckled as he wiped a tear from his eye, looking over to the suit. After the whole train incident, Sam had noticed a severe flaw in his design. The power transfer was extremely slow and insufficient. So he's had to leave it on stand by while it was updated and fixed. He kept the model the same, changing little than just covering the hints of bolts with plating. He also had to buff out some of the scratches from the train, so that was also a pain.

"But you know what the real trick is?" Sam asked as he pressed on the hologram, getting a capsule with two sodas to pop up from the table. "The reason I know no one will be able to make anything close to this is ironically my handicap."

"Right, only you and your dad know how to make an arc reactor." Issei remembered, him and Sam grabbing a soda before they started to drink. "So what now? You've tested the suit and updated it, there anything else to do?"

"Progress is never ending." Sam responded. "I've kept it on lockdown for a bit, but I was thinking of taking it for another ride. Who knows what possible upgrades I could have for it when I get back."

"Dude, is there anything else you could actually get added in?" Issei asked. "Even then, do you think something could happen again? I'm not sure about you, but a train crash is about the furthest proof of a working project."

"Well, you never know."

" _I do sir."_ AVON spoke up, her hologram appearing over the table. "For example, a silent alarm in Kuoh's bank has been tripped." Both Issei and Sam sat straight up at the news, staring at the A.I. with shock. _"Authorities are moving in, and without direct access to the cameras, I can not tell how many there are."_

Sam then looked to Issei, smirking as he put his soda down. "I'd say this is a good moment for Metal Knight to show up, wouldn't you?"

"Just go put the suit on man, this could be bad."

* * *

"It's just a few guys with guns, how bad could it be?"

By the time Sam had the suit on, he had already lost close to five minutes before he made it into the air, flying high as he moved for the bank. "Anything else coming up about this robbery? Possible suspects?"

" _Nothing so far sir. The police have arrived and have quarantined the area. The reports show that they'll likely move in in approximately ten minutes."_ AVON answered, the data going by the HUD. _"Although there is a lot of collateral damage on the bank, spreading from the doors to parts of the wall."_

"Sam do you see that?" Issei asked, both seeing the picture of the entrance. The doors were completely gone, shattered into nothing with the hinges also blown apart. At least three feet of the surrounding walls were also decimated, the rubble all over the place. "Whoever's in there, they must have heavy weapons."

"And that means they'll take a few of the enforcement with them." Sam continued, narrowing his eyes at the thought. Increasing his speed, Sam descended down to in between the buildings, narrowly navigating each turn as he had AVON assist the flight. "How much longer?"

" _Thirty seconds, sir."_

After two more turns, Sam could see the bank just a block away, surrounded by police and emergency services alike. When he was just over them he faced his hands put and used his repulsors to stop himself. He then landed on the road, catching both the enforcement and medical personnel alike. "How many people are in there?"

"Metal Knight?" One of the officers questioned, confused to see him here.

"I need to know how many people are stuck in there." Sam said again, turning to the bank.

"There are about five men in there, all armed. And all of the bank staff are being held hostage. We're moving in once we get the clear."

"Stay here and stall that order." Sam ordered, starting to walk towards the entrance. "These guys clearly are heavily armed, you'll lose men if you go in after them." Not even waiting for a response, Sam approached the opening in the bank, his fingers tightening into a fist before relaxing. "Issei, what am I dealing with?"

"AVON's scanning the building now." Issei responded, looking at the list and images that appeared in front of him. "It looks like four of them have a mostly fully automatic rifles, one of them having a shotgun as well. The fifth one seems to have some weird energy reading to it."

"Strange energy reading?"

" _Sir, the suspect appears to have a low powered core connected to an advanced exoskeleton."_ AVON explained. _"There also appears to be some kind of seismic pulse coming from his arms. Some of this tech is reminiscing of Ddeallus tech."_

"My dad's tech?" Sam thought out loud as he flew in, immediately getting shot at by three of the gunman. He instinctively held his arms in front of his face, but as he landed near them he lowered them, knowing that they couldn't even dent the armor. "Hello gentleman, fancy meeting you here."

"Metal Knight? He's real?" One of the men gasped, immediately getting punched in the gut and sent into the wall. The reaction from the two rifleman were to shoot at him again, only were cut off as Sam grabbed both of their rifles, ripping them out of their grasp before throwing them to the ground, breaking both of them on the ground.

Before he was about to reach for the gunmen, he was shot in the side of his head by a shotgun, taking two steps to the side from the impact. The bullets however simply fell from his armor, not coming close to breaking the metal plating. When he turned to the crook with the shotgun, he could see the fear in his eyes before he flew at him and grabbed him by his shoulders. Using the momentum, he threw him down and slid him across the floor, hitting the wall with enough force to knock him out.

"Alright, hands up or you're-" When his boots hit the ground again, he turned to both the riflemen, seeing them with their hands already up. "Oh… you're both quick."

"Boss said it was just going to be a quick cash and grab, he didn't say anything about fighting a flying man in armor." One of the two responded, watching as Sam started to walk towards the counters to look for the workers.

"Hey, is anyone here?" He asked as he looked over the wooden counter, getting surprised as a fist came out of nowhere and punched his faceplate. A large amount of force had impacted him just after, sending him crashing into one of the walls, disorienting him from the crash.

"Well, well. So the Inventor shows himself once more." A man said as he jumped over the counter, revealing himself. He stood at an imposing 6'5, the same height as Sam with the suit on. But the man had that height naturally, and a large build, appearing that he could have been a professional boxer. "I wasn't expecting you to show, thought your train save was a one time thing."

Sam groaned as he got back up, his vision clearing as the man approached him. When he could finally see, he stared in surprise when he saw the exoskeleton suit around him, and the gauntlets that he had put on. He's seen them in his father's prototype database. "That equipment…"

"Like it?" The man smirked as he clenched his right hand into a fist. "A little "retirement" present I got for myself. And it is rather fair, I did help design it after all."

"That technology… belongs to Ddeallus Corp. Not some criminal like-" Before Same could finish, the man punched him in the stomach, the shockwave going off again and sending him through the wall, landing on a police car.

"The fools at Ddeallus Corp had no idea what I had given them!" The man shouted from the new hole in the building.

"AVON, search through the database." Sam ordered his AI, slowly getting up from the hood of the car. His gut felt like it was shaking, the impact having some kind of lasting effect.

" _I had already found everything sir."_ AVON responded, all of the data appearing on Sam's screen. " _Lancaster Sneed was a chief engineer in Ddeallus' weapon's division for almost twenty years, serving as a close partner to your father before they parted ways over the use of Sneed's new weapon. Seismic sonic shifters, relays that have such a high frequency they cause a shockwave of kinetic force."_

"I think I remember him talking about that." Sam groaned as he got to his feet, his armor keeping his shaking from showing. "So, you didn't like how Ddeallus was handling your tool so you took it for yourself?"

"That idiot wanted to waste it on construction work." Sneed glared. "Said it would be better used to clear rubble or be focused to cut through stone. That way excavations would be more precise and less of the digs would damage what they were looking for."

"Sounds reasonable to me."

"This equipment can flip tanks with a strong enough frequency, and he thinks it'd be better used moving pebbles!" The engineer scoffed, his gauntlets glowing as he increased the frequency. "Maybe if he sees a little demonstration on a walking tin can, Alexander will see just the mistake he made."

"Oh you did not just call me a tin can." Sam smirked as he activated his thrusters, flying right at Sneed. He expected that a direct charge would surprise the man, but was proven wrong as he was hit in the side of his head, sending him off course and crashing into the bank.

"What you made is nothing more than a glorified F-22 in the shape of a man." Sneed responded, turning to where Sam was currently laying at. "What I invented is a revolutionary tool that creates enough kinetic force to knock away multi-ton objects with just a single punch. Imagine how devastating this technology could be when applied to a bomb. The amplification of a stronger power source, all the potential such a simple idea could have."

"All the lives you'd be ending." Sam growled as he stood back up, several dents in his armor from the latest punch. "AVON, update me."

" _Suit integrity is at 96%."_ The AI answered. _"I'd advice avoiding any more blows to the head. You'll suffer a concussion and be unable to take in the HUD data."_

"No more head injuries, got it." He'd respond before using his thrusters to send himself forward, rearing his right fist back as he approached. When Sneed went to throw his own punch, Sam landed and ducked under, landing a blow to the man's chest before raising an arm to block Sneed's follow up. The impact caused his bones to rattle, but he was able to swat the gauntlet away and land a punch to Sneed's face, causing the man to take several steps back in recoil.

"Guess it wasn't smart fighting a guy in full body armor without a helmet, huh?" Sam snarked at the man as he steadied himself, blood coming down the side of his face where Sam hit. In response, a full plated mask slide across Sneed's face, optics glowing to life as he now had better protection. "Oh… never mind."

Sneed then hit both of his wrists together as he walked towards Sam, the light of his gauntlets brightening while a faint buzzing was heard. _"Sir, he increased the frequency by 50%."_

"Oh terrific!" Sam groaned to himself as Sneed ran at him, blocking a punch with both his arms. He was able to bear most of the impact, but had to move his head back to avoid a swift punch to his chin. He'd use his thrusters to flip back, kicking Sneed as he did. Before he finished though, Sneed grabbed his ankle, keeping him in place as he flew.

"You're not getting away that easy!" He grinned as he pulled Sam closer, his own suit offering a decent strength increase before punching next to Sam's reactor. The punch left a massive dent in his chest plate, his chest tightening in pain as he used his free leg to kick Sneed across his face. The man went flying to the side, landing on his side while Sam landed down on his hands and knees.

"AVON… status?"

" _The last punch caused your reactor to pause for a second, almost giving you a heart attack from the sudden loss of charge."_ AVON detailed, his heart rate having spiked from the pressure.

"I don't get it, why is his punches doing that much more?" Sam questioned to himself, getting up slowly along with Sneed.

" _The frequency in which his gauntlets are striking has a temporary pass through solid objects."_ The AI noticed, causing Sam's eyes to widen. _"It's likely the damage you personally are taking comes from the frequency passing through your body, rather than the attacks themselves."_

"What's the matter Metal Knight, not feeling so good in there?" Sneed asked mockingly, noting that he was moving better than him armored opponent. "Don't tell me that a little sonic frequency passing through you hurts that much. It's nothing more than a small little jolt."

"To you maybe." Sam muttered under his breath, getting into a basic stance as Sneed ran after him. Flying over him, Sam did a flip before blocking a punch with his elbow, quickly swiping it away and landing his own punch on him. Sneed would return his own punch to Sam's gut, followed by a kick to his side. Each strike the two would wince, but surprisingly they stayed fighting, trading blows in front of the spectators.

The officers on sight remained in place with their weapons down, not taking the risk of hitting Metal Knight among the chaos. Although they had no reason to listen to the vigilante, they were trying to avoid any potential misfire from Sneed's gauntlets. Not to mention they weren't aware if Sam had any ordinance in his armor.

Despite the seemingly equal fight from both Sneed and Sam, the younger boy was clearly at a disadvantage. More of Sneed's attacks were connecting, the vibrations in his bones slowly building up to affect him until Sneed landed another punch to Sam's chest. The punch caused his reactor to pause once more, his body tensing and leaving himself open to the next punch, sending him crashing onto his back several meters away.

The boy would groan heavily as he got back up to a single knee, placing a hand on his chest as his heart stung. He couldn't risk taking another punch to his chest, otherwise he'd go into cardiac arrest. But without any weapons, he would be forced to go back into trading punches with the man. "AVON… got any ideas?"

" _None that wouldn't risk severely injuring Mr. Sneed, sir."_ AVON informed. _"The best I can say is take to the air and try to find a way to distract him."_

' _Distract him? What can I do to distract him?'_ Sam thought, activating his thrusters as he was about to take to the air. But before he could Sneed ran forward and punched his leg, flipping him over and causing him to crash face first into the concrete. He was then flipped over as Sneed stood over him, rearing his fist back as his gauntlet increased in frequency again.

" _Sir, the frequency has been increased to 100% higher than the initial frequency!"_ AVON warned, leading to Sam to cross his arms over his face when he threw the punch.

"Good night Metal Knight!" Sneed shouted as he was about to punch Sam, his gauntlets producing a faint hum from the frequency being broadcasted. But before it landed, however, he was caught by surprised as a strange substance caught his hand, stopping him just inches from hitting Sam. "What the? What is this?"

"Back up buddy!" Sneed was then pulled right off of Sam, surprising both him and the man as he was then kicked in the side, hitting against the bank wall. As Sam uncrossed his arms, he looked over to see someone running over to him. They were dressed head to toe in ragged looking clothes, a strange mix of brown and pale yellow, not a single part of their body was visible. They didn't stand too imposing, by Sam's guess they seemed no bigger than an average woman in Japan, and their voice would point to that as well. Although the mask and outfit certainly did a good job at making it difficult to make out her features.

"Are you alright Metal Knight, sir?" The person asked as they reached him, holding their hand down to him. Sam accepted the hand without thinking, caught off guard as she easily pulled him up to his feet.

"Who're you?" Sam asked.

"Oh, right well I'm…" She started to say, pausing as she came to a realization. "I haven't quite figured that part out."

"Got it, newbie." Sam responded, turning to see Sneed getting back up. "Well while I got you here, think you can lend a hand without getting in the way."

"I'll try." She responded, getting into a lowered stance as Sneed stood. "Do you have an idea in taking him down? It's just, I saw how things were going and I sort of figured… I-I don't mean to be rude but you were struggling a lot!"

"Lose the stutter newbie." Sam sighed as he shook his head. "I have something in the works, but I need him still if it's going to work. Think you can handle that?"

"Roger that Metal Knight sir!" She responded, saluting before running towards Sneed. "One still bad guy coming up!"

"AVON, start transferring power to my repulsors." Sam ordered.

" _Sir, the repulsor tech hasn't been cleared for fire testing yet. At its current state, the power required will be twice the projected amount for safe-"_

"I understand that AVON, now make it happen." Sam interrupted, having already seen the data for himself. "We're just going without the training wheels, nothing too dangerous. Besides we need to be quick for the newbie, so cut the chatter and set it up."

" _Understood sir."_

"Who are you?" Sneed questioned the woman, seeing her run at him in her makeshift suit. "You know what, doesn't matter. Just another freak to test my work on!" Throwing a punch, Sneed activated his seismic sensor halfway through to cause a wave of kinetic energy right at her.

However, she seemed to easily predict the attack, falling back and sliding on her back towards him. "Not happening big guy!" As she reached him, she pushed off the ground and flipped over him, avoiding a downward punch that cracked the ground underneath him. When he turned to find her, he looked up to stare in confusion as she stuck to the wall, crawling on her hands and feet. "What is that stuff, sonic dischargers?"

"Seismic sonic shifters, not that you would understand what that means." Raising his fist up, he planned to fire another kinetic wave when she shot her wrist out and fired the same substance as before, enclosing his entire hand with it.

"Actually, I know a thing or two about that." She would respond, firing two more shots of the substance at his other hand and chest, stopping all of his fire options. "Guessing by how you used them, they fire a sort of shockwave of force to amplify your attacks or even create a projectile. Kinda basic, don't you think?"

"Basic? Basic!?"

"Uh oh." Sneed was visibly enraged at the insult of his life's work being basic, resulting in him setting his gauntlets to max, blasting the strange sticky substance off of his weapons. Jumping down, she'd avoid a kinetic blast that took a chunk of the wall before kicking at him, hitting his chest and knocking him back.

Flipping back, he'd grip into the concrete and stop himself from going too far back. But before he could get up, the woman shot two ropes of the substance at the two sides of him. She'd grip onto the ropes and pulled herself, crossing the distance in almost a second to kick him in the face with both her feet. Knocking him into the air, she shot two more ropes onto his chest, sticking to him and slamming him back to the ground.

Sneed was now showing signs of taking damage, taking longer to get up from his dazed head. When he was back to his feet, he would be surprised as his feet were shot by the substance and stuck to the ground, keeping him in place. "He's open Metal Knight!"

" _Hand repulsor at 100%"_ AVON informed, getting a smirk from Sam.

"You're going down, Sneed!" Aiming his right hand out, the repulsor on his palm glowed yellow before firing an energy projectile. A small beam that instantly hit Sneed in the back, and with it ripped him off of the ground and back into the wall.

"Whoa!" The woman jumped away from Sneed when he flew past her, looking back to Metal Knight. "You can shoot lasers? When could you shoot laser!?"

"Well it isn't exactly a laser, just charged and uncharged particles forming into a semi-solid projectile beam." Sam explained, the light dying down as he closed his hand. Sneed then fell to the ground from the wall, Sam soon walking up to him. He would look down at the stunned man, scanning across his armor before detecting the power source's energy level.

"You don't deserve this tech." Sam spat as he reached down, grabbing the reactor and yanking it out, ripping it from the wires and metal that held it. Looking at it, Sam could easily recognize the design as one of the dozen prototypes for his own arc reactor. The thought of a similar model powering a weapon angered him, leading him to crushing it without a second thought.

Tossing it, he'd turn as he heard the police start to approach, looking over to his savior. "You have a way of getting out of here?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah! I can move on my own." She answered nodding.

"Meet me two blocks north from here, I want to talk." He ordered, taking off and flying away shortly after.

The woman couldn't help but smile under her mask, her feet jumping in excitement as she could barely contain herself. "Metal Knight wants to talk to me!"

"Stay where you are!" One of the officers ordered, snapping out of her excitement.

"Oh, right, authorities." She said to herself. "Sorry officers, but I have a meeting to get to!" She would apologize, quickly running past them and surprising them with her speed. Just as she stepped onto the street, she aimed her right wrist up and fired a rope of her substance, hitting the side of a building and pulling herself up.

* * *

"Dude, did you see her figure?" Issei asked over the comms, calling in after letting Sam fight without a backseat driver. "That girl is definitely a 8/10 at worst!"

"Seriously, that's what you noticed?" Sam asked, rolling his eyes as he landed on a building roof. "Not the impressive strength, incredible acrobatics, blinding speed or the weird stuff coming out of her wrists? All while in a quickly thrown together costume that probably limits all of her movements?"

"Well yeah, of course I did." Issei responded. "But come on man! You can't deny that she's probably a beauty underneath that ridiculous costume! Maybe not the biggest breasts, but those hips and figure man!"

"You're a one track mind Issei." Sam chuckled as he shook his head. "But that's what I like about you. You don't ever seem to change." He then saw a splatter of the woman's substance hit the edge of the roof, connected by a rope of the same material. "I'm cutting the comm for now, she's just about here."

"Get her number!" Issei would shout before the communication was turned off.

"The voice augmentator is still on, right AVON?" Sam would double check, getting confirmation immediately.

" _It always is, sir."_

The woman then swung and landed on the roof's edge, landing flawlessly as she turned to face Sam. "Man, that was a close one, huh?"

"Eh, it would've been pretty dicey but I could've handled it." Sam responded, walking towards her as he did. "But let's ignore me for now. I want to know who you are. And how you were able to shoot those weird ropes and sludge things at Sneed."

"Oh, right. I'm sure you have a lot of questions." She said, folding her hands together as she looked around.

"We're completely alone up here." Sam said, getting her attention. "We're high up enough that no one would hear unless you shouted. And none of the buildings around are housing so no one will be listening from a window."

That got her to sigh with relief. "That's good." Collecting herself, she'd hold her right hand out for a handshake. "I'm… well I still don't have a name for myself, but I can say that I'm like you. Or at least, I'm going to be trying to be like you."

"You can relax you know." Sam chuckled as he shook her hand. "And if you don't have a name for yourself, why don't with something simple. What's that weird white stuff you were shooting around?"

"Oh, that's my webbing!" She answered enthusiastically as she reached for her waist. Pulling out a small capsule, she handed it over to Sam, who looked at it while his suit began to scan it. "It's a chemical compound I invented with stuff I found lying around. You see it's meant to mimic the properties of a spider's silk, and I have these small gadgets on my wrists that let me shoot them." In response to her explanation, she twisted her arm so that he palm was facing up, revealing a small metal device that connected to her wrist.

Pressing down on a small button, the covering came up and revealed another one of the capsules she gave Sam. "See, I put them in here to be able to shoot small amounts of the webbing or a long rope to swing from."

After AVON had completed the scan, Sam held the capsule next to his head while looking to the woman, his shocked expression hidden by his helmet. "You made this stuff? All by yourself with a bunch of random chemicals?"

"Well they aren't "random" parse, but yeah. It took me months to figure out the right formula, I was actually making this stuff before you stopped that train even."

"This stuff is incredibly efficient, the Tensile strength is unreal. Most carbon ropes can't compare to this." He noted, seeing all the chemical compounds running across his HUD. "It's amazing, I didn't even know that all of these chemicals could go together in such a way."

"Of, please don't make it sound that special." She blushed, kicking her foot to distract herself. "I'm sure with your intellect you could have made this in a snap if you wanted to."

"No, I'm gonna be honest I wouldn't have ever been able to make this." Sam admitted, tossing the web fluid back to the woman. "I'm only decent with chemicals and elements, the only ones I'm an expert with are metals. But I'm sorry that I don't quite understand why you chose a synthetic web like a spider. Where'd that come from?"

"Oh, that's a bit of a story."

"I got time."

"O-Oh, really?" She asked, getting a nod from him. "Well… o-okay then. Mind if I get comfortable?"

"Help yourself." Sam waved.

Sighing, she would slowly climb down to where she was hanging on the side of the building, her feet and left hand sticking to the wall. "Okay, so it all started when I was born in Osaka." Sam then groaned, leading her to shake her hands as she turned to him. "No don't worry, it's not a life story thing! I was just going to bring up that when I was born, I didn't have my powers!"

"Oh, sorry." Sam apologized. "So I guess you aren't a Mutant then?"

"No, no, or at least I'm not a natural one." She answered, relaxing herself again. "See, that goes back to just a couple months ago, about ten when I went on a science trip. It was a long one, all the way to America for a science fair. I had a theory on chemical infusion that was surprised most of my teachers on how sound it was. So I was sent and got to go to the company Oscorp Industries."

"Oh yes, I know that company." Sam nodded, slightly frowning underneath his helmet. "They specialize in genetic mutation and engineering, correct?"

"That's only one of the fields, but yeah they have a lot of resources in it." She explained. "While I was there, I got separated from my supervisor and walked into this weird room filled with spiders in webs." She then looked down to her right hand, rubbing over it in remembrance. "Then one of them bit me, and it was the most painful thing I ever felt. I nearly collapsed from the pain alone."

"But I was able to make it out and close it, didn't want anyone knowing what I was doing." She continued, looking up to Sam. "I was supposed to reveal my infusion theory, but after an hour I was beginning to feel sick to my stomach. When I was finally at the lab to discuss it, I passed out with a high fever."

"The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, and I was bedridden for a whole month. I missed my Taekwondo tournament because of it."

"You do martial arts? That explains the fighting skill."

"Yeah, so when I finally was able to move again, I was completely caught off guard when I noticed these… changes to me." She said, clenching her hand and releasing it. "I felt as light as a feather, and could lift way more than I ever could. Not to mention when I'd move, I felt like my senses were set up by almost ten times. I was expecting things coming without even knowing they were there. And then these weird… microscopic hairs formed on my hands and feet. I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there and they allowed me to stick to the wall."

"So some spider bit you and suddenly you gained powers?" Sam asked, looking down to the woman.

"Yeah, I think they were doing serious tests on those spiders. And when it bit me, it must have mutated my genes to enhance them. Kind of like that Super Soldier serum used to create Captain America."

"Genetic experimentation." Sam grunted as he looked away, confusing the woman as he did. When he noticed her confusion, he rubbed the back of his helmet. "Sorry, I'm just not a big fan of tampering with genes. It's a messy routine and it doesn't usually end well."

"Personal experience?"

"Something like that." Sam nodded, walking up to the edge. "But there's no need to talk about me. Why don't we try thinking of a name for you before the news makes one for you."

"Wait, you want to help with that!?"

"Of course, I love naming things. Kinda disappointed the news beat me to thinking of a name. I would've gone with Steel Legionnaire or something." He then cupped his chin with two fingers, rubbing the smooth metal as he thought. "Let's see, you swing on webs, so maybe the Slinger?"

"Nope, too dull."

"Web Shot?"

"Sounds more of a villain name."

"Fang?"

"Guy's name."

"The Human Spider?" The woman only looked up to him, getting him to shrug in agreement. "Yeah, that's only a name Tobey Maguire could come up with." He then scratched the top of his helmet. "What's a good name? One that's original and not to attention seeking but has meaning? Spiders have eight legs, putting them up as arachnids… arachnids." He then tried to snap his fingers, failing due to the metal layer. "I got it! How about Arachnid?"

"Arachnid?" She echoed.

"Yeah, it's short, to the point, and relates to spiders!" Sam then looked to his power, seeing that he was just below half from the repulsor blast. "Hey, I got a go. Sorry I can't stay, but my suit is probably going to need minor repairs and updates." He then activated his thrusters, hovering several feet above as he looked down to her. "But considering the crime wave that's going to be hitting Kuoh soon, we'll have plenty of work to get done."

"Wait, we?" She questioned.

"Well yeah, I can only assume you'll have my back when things go down. You can trust I'll have yours." He then turned up, taking off and flying into the air. "See ya around, Arachnid!"

As he flew away, the woman would watch him as he was quickly miles out. In an attempt to watch him for as long as she could, she took her mask off, revealing her brown hair and green eyes. Haia could only watch in wonder as who she saw as Metal Knight flew off, her now short cut hair blowing faintly in the wind. When her enhanced vision could no longer see him, she would look down to her mask. "Arachnid." She said quietly, smiling as she gripped it with both hands. "I like it."

Putting her mask back on, she looked out to Kuoh with hopeful eyes, seeing a new future in the works for her. She could only smile to herself as she now had a purpose for her powers. And could make use of it. It was a new chapter in her life, one she was glad to share it with a partner like Metal Knight.


	5. First Patrol

"So there's another hero running around?" Rias asked, getting a nod from Denica as she sat across the room from her. Along with the two, Sona was present sitting next to Denica, her usual business expression on her face.

"Yep, the two just stopped a crime about an hour ago." Denica explained. "Some chick running around in some rags that shoots these weird rope things from her wrists. She's also able to climb up walls from what I could gather."

"Anything on her identity?"

"Nothing, I couldn't get into her head." The blonde admitted. "Some weird sensation kept spiking in my head when I tried to, it felt like hundreds of red flags were being shot out whenever I tried to make a connection." She then began to rub her forehead, appearing actually bothered by the process. "She has some kind of subconscious ability that enhances her awareness by a ton. And considering she didn't discover my presence, she must have been fighting my connection without even knowing it."

"To be able to block out your powers without even knowing, she must be extremely powerful." Sona commented, getting a nod from Denica.

"Most likely, but I have no idea what would have happened if I forced my connection. I probably would've found something, but then I would risk leaving mental damage on both of us."

"What about Metal Knight?" Rias asked. "Were you able to confirm what we initially assumed?"

"I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Sam is Metal Knight, yes." Denica nodded, resting back onto the couch as she answered. "His armor was a bit difficult to get through, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle." She then sighed as she closed her eyes. "Although I have to ask, does it really matter now that we know his identity? We pretty much had all but confirmed it was him and did nothing after his last stunt."

"We have to be aware of all activity that goes on within our territory." Sona stated, looking over to the blonde as she did. "Having someone flying around with enough firepower to level the entire town is an anomaly that we can't ignore. We needed to confirm who he was so that we'd know if we needed to step in."

"The suit barely has any weapons in it." Denica countered. "Other than a handful of flares and those lasers, Sam's suit is completely dry in terms of weaponry. And it isn't like he actually did anything to warrant concern to us. He has zero knowledge of the supernatural and has no idea that we aren't human."

"That's besides the point Lady Denica." Rias interrupted. "Whether or not he's done anything towards us, he is still a dangerous factor we must take into account. The suit's design leaves plenty of room for development, and we can't be certain that he won't put weapons in future models."

"He's had a few chances to kill people at this point." Denica put in, reminding the two of the train incident. "Kasady could've had a fist-sized hole in his chest if Sam wanted him to, but he settled with knocking him out. He did that today as well with the robbers, not a single casualty had occurred."

"You're rather protective of him, aren't you Lady Denica?" Sona questioned.

"I just see a lot of potential in him." She responded, opening her eyes to look to the Devil. "Every world's felt the impact that his father and grandfather have laid out, he's the next generation that could completely change the world. I just think that giving him a chance before giving a report would be the best thing to do. See what he can really do before there's a verdict on him."

"We can't just overlook him. He's a risk and a potential danger should any faction decide to add him into their ranks."

"Remind what exactly he's done that's so bad? He's stopped a psychopath from crashing a train into the heart of Kuoh and prevented a bank robbery from one of his father's former scientists." Denica listed off, standing up and smiling as she walked over to a window. "And it isn't like he's a jerk here at school. A little perverted? Yeah, every guy usually is. But he's offered his time to help both the students and faculty. He clearly isn't a bad guy, and if you're so worried about the Fallen Angels or Angels getting to him why not just recruit him now?"

"Absolutely not." Sona responded, speaking firm as she stood up. "Alexander Ddeallus had made it explicitly clear that we are not to drag him into our affairs. And while he might be the future of the Ddeallus family, he is far from proving himself to even be aware of the supernatural."

"He lifted a multi-ton train to stop just two people from getting squashed. I'm not saying throw him into the politics, but maybe just knowing that there's a little more going on wouldn't hurt. Stray Devils are being sighted more in Japan thanks to the crime that's spiking."

"Lady Denica, you know we can't do that." Rias stated. "Alexander is the only middle ground the Three Factions have to avoid any serious incident. If any side were to attempt to earn Samuel's favor so early we could look at damaging the ceasefire that's lasted the past 400 years."

"Oh please, no one has a problem I hang out with the Devils so much." Denica waved off, staring out the window as her reflection stared back. "And it isn't like he's a God-Tier risk factor either. He's just a kid like you two." When Denica turned back to see the two's narrow gazes, she rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "Look, I'm not asking for too much here. Just a little more time to study him and see how he goes through his paces. After that, we can give a full report on him to the Maou and let them decide on what to do. Fair enough?"

Both Sona and Rias looked to each other at her words, both having a silent conversation between themselves. They were fully aware of the risks of going with Denica's plan, but at the same time she had more than a few points. Sam hadn't officially done anything to be registered within the Devil's radar, nothing involving the supernatural at least. And it was also true that he could provide a valuable ally in the future, as long as they could get around the roadblock that's his father.

Both eventually relented and sighed. "Very well Lady Denica. If you feel he's important enough to avoid calling attention to, we will hold back our report to the Maou for two months." Sona said, getting a toothy grin from Denica.

"Woohoo!" Denica cheered as she leaped in the air, her grin revealing her canine teeth being significantly sharper. "Point one for the lady in gold!"

"But, should anything happen that forces him into the supernatural, and by extent making him aware of our existence, we are to act immediately." Sona added in. "Am I clear?"

"I mean, you're not my boss but okay."

"Now then, about the reports on the increase in Stray Devils…"

* * *

"You're still recovering?" Issei asked as he and Sam were walking to school. After his battle with Sneed, Sam had suffered severe bruising and even a loss in power from his reactor. As a result he had to recharge much earlier than normal and was moving noticeably sloppier.

And he didn't look much better either, as he stayed up all night fixing his armor. "Well I certainly haven't gotten much better. The bruise on my chest is killing me right now, and I really could've used some actual sleep but of course my armor was damaged and in need of repair."

"Man, you've only been on two saves and this is how you're holding?" Issei spoke in concern, seeing just how exhausted Sam was. "Maybe you should take another couple weeks for a break. With Arachnid now here you could probably spare that time."

"No, that wouldn't be fair." Sam yawned, wiping a stray tear from his eyes. "I only made it out of there as well as I did because she showed up. If she were any later I'd probably would've gone into shock. So I owe her at least my attention for the next couple of days to work together. And I did basically say that we were partners, so it only increases the need of me being there even more."

Issei then sighed, shaking his head as he regarded Sam. "Sam, I trust you but you have to limit yourself. You just got hit by sonic waves that almost stopped your heart. You can't go around fighting like that constantly, especially with your condition."

"Don't worry Ise." Sam responded, patting Issei's shoulder. "I'm not an idiot, I'll be sure to get some rest on my free periods today and even head to bead early tonight. I had already spent last night fixing and modifying my suit so there isn't anything that requires my direct attention."

"Modified?"

"Just a little color change." Sam explained. "Chrome isn't really my color, so I decided to have AVON start painting the suit over the course of the day. With my design I'd add in."

"So it's the same suit but a different color?"

"Essentially."

"You planning on building another one?"

"Oh definitely. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to keep Proto around but there are some serious redesigns I need to go through. And at the top of that is upgrading the defense. Steel's great, but I could use a lot better options like Gold-Titanium or Tungsten-Vanadium."

"You're going to have to be a translator for me on those." Issei responded, sighing before realizing what Sam said. "Wait, Proto? Who's that?"

"Proto is the name of my Mark 1 suit. I like to give all my work a special name to signify them and Proto came to mind. It was my first suit, the foundation for what will be for the rest. And as for the metal alloys, Gold-Titanium is good for aerodynamic travel and even flight high in atmosphere. While Tungsten-Titanium can take a hell of a lot more punishment while leaving good mobility for joints." Sam then rubbed his chin as he went over the math, determining which choice would be best. "Considering my next allowance, probably going with T-V will be the better option. It's cheaper and easier to work with. And when am I ever going to need a suit for high-altitude while I'm still in high school?"

"Sam." Issei spoke up as he snapped his fingers, getting Sam's attention. "You were going Inventor again."

"Oh, was I?" Sam chuckled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I'm just really looking forward to making my next suit. Proto's been such a success I can only imagine what my next model will be capable of."

"Well, you might want to tone it down now." Issei responded, motioning to the fact that they were reaching Kuoh Academy. "It'd be bad for you to get caught just after your second time putting the armor on."

"Yeah, I hear that." Sam chuckled.

When they had made it to the entrance, the two would separate to head to their homerooms, with Sam sitting at his seat. Sitting in his chair, he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, a feeling that grew more as students would continue to pile into the classroom. When just about everyone was present, he'd be sure to look around, taking note of everyone he recognized.

' _So there's Akeno, Rias, Tsubaki, Sona, Luna, Denica, Gato… just about everyone.'_ Sam thought as he scanned the room. _'And since that's just about everyone, then the only person late could be-'_

Before Sam could finish his thought, the sound of running was heard before Haia practically flew into the room. "I'm here!" Shortly after speaking up, the bell rung and almost instantly she tripped over, hitting one of the desk legs and falling to the ground in a thump. Her bag had fallen from her, and with the crash all of her papers came out and scattered across the floor.

' _Darn it… stupid stiches.'_ Haia winced as she felt her hands jolt in pain. She had spent the entire morning stitching up her suit, having found a few rips in it from yesterday. She wasn't good at it, leading to both her stabbing herself and the suit's stiches most likely going to rip again when she went on patrol.

As she got to her knees and rub her head, the entire room was staring in shock at the Disciplinary president not only being late, but also crashing in such a fashion. She had also clearly rushed putting her uniform on, clear from how unkempt it had appeared and the lack of the girl uniform's cape.

"Ouch, that had to leave a mark." When Haia looked up from her injuries, she saw Sam kneeling down next to her. "Took a pretty hard dive there, huh Choukai?"

"What do you want Ddeallus?" Haia asked, her normal cold tone returning at the sight of the boy.

"Hey, hey, ceasefire." Sam responded, holding his hands in mock defeat before reaching down. "I meant no harm, I was seriously asking if you were hurt." He then began to pick up Haia's papers, confusing her as he did. "What?"

"Why are you helping me?"

"I mean, it's what I've always wanted to do." Sam commented, handing Haia's papers to her as they stood up. "Helping people's always just been kinda my thing. I might talk smack when it comes down to most people, but I actually do want to help people. Whether you're my friend or not. So while I'm certainly no fan of you, I'm going to help when I see you fall flat on the floor."

"But I-"

"Oh for God's sake." Denica rolled her eyes before cupping her hands together. "Just take the gesture and roll with it!"

' _Subtle Denica.'_ Sam thought with a straight face, looking over to the blonde.

"Ahem." Their homeroom teacher, Karl Lykos, coughed in his hand to get the classroom's attention. "Good I have you're attention. Now first thing's first, Haia, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, sir." Haia answered.

"That's good, we wouldn't want someone as important as you getting hurt on us, would we?" Lykos responded before turning to Sam. "And Samuel, thank you for helping Haia."

"No problem sir." Sam stated.

"Alright, now may you please take your seats so that we may take roll call?" Lykos asked. "We're already behind, and I'd rather not be the reason you're all late to class."

"Yes sir."

The two then went to their seats, with Haia attempting to fix her uniform the best she could. From her costume being ripped and taking so long to fix, to the humiliation of getting to class nearly late in such a state. The day couldn't get much worse for her.

"You look good with short hair." Sam whispered from his chair, smirking as she rested her head down on her desk.

"I will end you one day."

"You know you're happy someone noticed."

* * *

"And after all of that, you'll end up with a product of 78.486. Understand?" Sam instructed as he at the front board of his classroom, using his first free period to tutor several first year students who transferred.

At the front, a boy named Connor Smith raised his hand. Connor had a surprisingly decent build, not something expected from a kid who was only 15. He had light blue eyes and black hair that was clearly a mess. Although other than that he was decently kept, except for his tired eyes from trying to catch up with all the work he was given when he moved to Japan.

"Yes Connor?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, could you please explain everything again? I got lost halfway through the problem." At Connor's request, most of the room all sighed or groaned in annoyance.

"Come on man, this is the fourth problem today." One of the boys in the back named Saji Genshirou complained, shaking his head at Connor.

"Sorry it's just… I've been up late trying to catch up and my focus is a little off is all." Connor responded, rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes.

"Yeah, sure that's what it is."

"Hey, Connor doesn't have to excuse himself." Sam spoke up as he looked to the blonde in the back. "He just transferred here two days ago, during which he has to already go over the work he wasn't here for, but also the essays in English and even finish moving into his apartment. And if I might recall, you had a similar trouble when you transferred from across town to here with your homework, so ease up a bit."

"S-Sorry sir." Saji relented, looking down in response.

"None of that sir, I'm you're senior not a teacher." Sam smiled. "I'd rather everyone gets accustomed to here and get along. So please give Connor a bit more time to adapt and I'm sure he'll be up to speed just like everyone else."

"Yes senpai."

"There we go, much better." Sam chuckled. "Alright Connor, I'll be sure to go over it again. I'll take time so that you understand everything this time."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

* * *

"What do you mean you're not coming!?" Matsuda shouted at Sam as they stood outside.

Sam rubbed his ear as he responded. "I mean that I won't be able to make it to the arcade tonight. I have some new equipment that I need to work with in my workshop."

"Figures you'd ditch us once you had the chance." Aika commented, getting Sam to roll his eyes.

"Funny, but its important work I have to do." Sam stated. "I'll make it up to you some time, but today I need to focus on this."

"Hey, it's okay man." Issei said, knowing what exactly Sam was talking about. "You've got a lot of stuff on your plate, we understand. Just don't push yourself too hard. You can handle a break every once in awhile."

"Yeah, yeah." Sam chuckled as he turned and walked away, waving over his shoulder as he headed for his workshop. "I still mean it though, I'll make up for the missed time."

"Man, this is the third time this week he's left on us." Motohama complained as the four went in the opposite direction towards town. "Kinda feels like he's gotten bored of us or something."

"No way man!" Matsuda responded, punching his shoulder. "You heard him, he's just got some stuff piling up on him. The guy's always gone the extra mile and it's just catching up to him is all. Right Ise?"

"Y-Yeah, right." Issei stuttered as he looked to the side, sweating slightly. It was difficult at times to avoid saying anything about Sam's new life as a hero, but he knew better than to reveal anything. Sam took a big risk just telling him, if anyone else knew then that meant there was a higher chance at someone discovering him. So keeping the group that knew who he was would be important.

Out of the group, Aika appeared to be the only one not affected by Sam's departure, shrugging while keeping a smirk on her face. "Eh, I bet it's something more than simple work. I bet he's just got a date and a new suit he wants to try out."

"W-WHAT!?"

* * *

"Ah man, there are still tears in this?" Haia complained as she sat on the roof of a building, wearing her Arachnid suit with her mask on. Looking at her right arm, she noticed more than a few rips on the sleeve, revealing her pale skin. "Why can't the stitching just stick together?" She then felt a small tingling in the back of her head, signaling her to turn and see Metal Knight flying in and land on the building.

"Do you want the scientific or the artistic reason?" While it clearly was the armored hero, Haia was completely caught off guard by the changes he had given himself. The previous chrome armor was now painted steel grey almost entirely, making the once shiny gear appear much dimmer. The armor was decaled with navy blue, covering the entirety of his forearms, faceplate and bottom half of his legs, with the under joints also being colored and two stripes going across his chest to form a V, his arc reactor at the center.

"Whoa… did you get an upgrade?" Haia asked as she got up, staring at the hero's new color design.

"Nah, this is still the same suit as before." Sam answered, rolling his shoulders to show the same maneuverability. "I just figured that chrome wasn't a very interesting color, so I went with something a little more interesting."

"Isn't that American Air Force colors?" She asked again, recalling seeing the decals from somewhere before.

"Yeah, I have something you'd call a tie to them." Sam said as he held his hand over his chest. "So I thought why not? The grey is still close enough to look like a tested armor, so it fits pretty well. Does it look good?"

"It looks great!" She said enthusiastically before looking down to her suit that was still barely holding together around the sleeves and part of the collar of her throat. "Beats mine in every sense."

"So you're actually having suit problems?"

"I mean, it certainly hasn't been anything good as you can tell. I can't get it to stay together for more than a few hours before it needs to get stitched together again."

"Is it going to be a problem for you?" Sam asked. "If you need it fixed, I could always throw together a machine to stitch it. Or I could make you a completely new suit if this one's too much of an issue."

"You'd do that!?" Haia said in shock, before shaking her head and holding her hand out to him. "No, no that isn't necessary. I'd rather make my own suit to prove my conviction rather than take a hand out. And besides, I don't think armor would look good on me."

"I mean, I can knit but go ahead with that." Sam responded, motioning his fingers as he spoke. "I'm good with my hands, have to be to make a suit like this."

"I'd still have to refuse." Haia stated. "My suit might be rather rubbish right now, but I know that I can make something better later. I just have to work with it for now until I can get the money for the supplies I need."

"Well, if you need anything you can look for me." Sam said as he stepped up to the roof's edge. "I'm more than willing to lend a hand when it's needed. And considering we're partners now it'd be good to get some proper teamwork set in."

"Well then, why wait?" Haia questioned as she ran past him, jumping off the building and firing a line of web to the next. "Let's go around on patrol and see around town? I'm sure we'll find something going on!"

"Patrol, huh?" Sam hummed as he activated his thrusters and began to follow, keeping his speed down to avoid blowing past her. "This'll be a first for me. Normally I just show up when something's happening."

"Something is always happening here." Haia said back, taking a hard right around a building as she swung. "Not every crime's going to be as big as a bank robbery. We have to look out for the smaller things too, like thieves and muggers. Kuoh isn't the biggest town out there, but there is several miles to it."

"Well, you seem to have Kuoh's secrets imprinted in your head." Sam chuckled, following her as he flew. "So how about you lead the way for today's patrol? Show me what to look for."

"You got it Metal Knight!"

* * *

"And if you just follow this street for two more blocks and take a right, you'll be at the café." Haia said as she pointed to the map in an old man's hand, directing him to where he has to go.

"Oh, thank you ma'am." The man thanked. "Sorry I forgot, what's you're name again?"

"It's Arachnid sir." Haia smiled underneath her mask, waving to the man before firing a web and swinging up, landing on the building in front of Sam.

"You know, I was expecting something else honestly." Sam stated as the two began to move again, heading deeper into Kuoh. "Maybe a gang or a guy with a gun. But all that's really happened is a dumb bike thief and a couple tourists losing direction."

"Japan might be having a crime wave, and that crime wave might be coming to Kuoh, but that doesn't mean it's all going to be one large storm." Haia responded, swinging off the building and running across the next one. "We might not even see any big crime here for another week if the pattern that you've been in goes on. So we'll be helping the little guy until the time comes."

"Seems like you were expecting that."

"I'd rather we're barely needed than having to be on guard all the time." Haia responded as she jumped, firing a web onto Sam's boot and using it to propel her to the next building. "Means less people are in danger."

"I guess." Sam nodded. "Still, I'd at last like to put my suit through a few more tests to see what needs upgrading. I have a limit to how long I can wait before needing to improve."

As Haia was about to respond, the same tingling sensation she felt before came up, leading her to look to an alley to her right. "Alley 2 o'clock."

At her call out, Sam turned his head and had his HUD zoom in. When he did, he saw about five thugs surrounding someone who was wearing a middle schooler uniform and another with a high school uniform. "Couple of punks cornering someone."

"Well then, here's a good test!" Haia responded, turning to swing towards the alley.

"Now, now boys, could we perhaps talk this over?" Yumi asked as she and Koneko stood in the alley, the Knight standing in front of the Rook. The two were both out on a request from Rias to try and track Metal Knight, but ran into the roadblock of men before them.

"Well, I certainly would love to." The leader of the group stated, smirking as he regarded the two. "It isn't everyday you see a beauty quite like you wandering around town. I must admit it's a good surprise to say the least."

"…You're clearly not from here." Koneko said from behind Yumi, sounding completely calm and unaffected by the five men. As her status as a Rook, overpowering all five of them would be easy, she wouldn't even break a sweat doing it. But they also had to keep their identities as Devils secret and avoid harming any humans. "…You're European, and based on how you talk it's clear you don't know much Japanese."

"Okay, you got me." He chuckled, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "Truth is me and the boys here are new. A couple opportunities came up and we were hoping to cash in on them."

"Considering you're stance, I'd say it isn't the best of choices." Yumi commented, keeping herself between Koneko and the five.

"I wouldn't say that. It lead us to you after all."

"…This place literally just got a superhero and you think it's good to become crooks?" Koneko asked. "…And just when I thought you D-bags were just stupid."

"What'd you call us!?" One of the four others shouted, standing down when the leader held his hand to him.

"You're so called hero left for over a week before he decided he was needed again." The leader said, taking a step closer to the two. "Do you think the crime just stopped after he fucked off? No, it kept going. Metal Knight isn't interested in the small fry stuff, people like us fly right under his radar. So while it seems like we made a bad choice, we're more than aware that no one's going to stop us now."

"Wrong jerk!" Hearing the shout, the leader was only just able to turn before he was kicked across his face, Haia landing just in front of Yumi as she turned to face them. "There's more to this town than just one hero."

The leader was still standing, rubbing his jaw as the force from the kick caught him off guard. "Damn, that's going to leave a mark." He scoffed as he spat out a tooth, surprising Haia at how calmly he took the hit. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"The name's Arachnid, and we won't let you take another step towards these two." Haia said, regaining her composure and getting into a combative stance.

"Arachnid, really?" The leader responded, shaking his head in disappointment. "That was really the best you could come up with? You don't even look anything like a spider or a scorpion."

"Oh you think it's funny? Well buddy there's a few reasons for the name." To show her point, Haia fired a web at one of the men furthest from her, the webbing extending and completely wrapping around him as it knocked him over. "Like that for example."

"The hell is this stuff!?" The thug shouted as he tried to break free, unable to escape from the tough webbing.

"Get him out of it." The leader ordered two of the others, keeping his eyes on Haia. "So you got a neat trick or two, do you really think that'll be able to stop all of us?"

"Well, it could. But then why'd he be here?" Haia asked, smirking underneath her mask while the man looked at her in confusion.

"He?"

A loud clang was then heard, and all of the men turned in shock to see Metal Knight behind them, his repulsors glowing to life as he aimed his palms at them. "She would be referring to me."

"Metal Knight!?"

"Sup." He said before firing one of the blasts at two of the thugs, knocking them into the wall with enough force to knock them out. At the same time, his head snapped to the side as the last standing thug grabbed a stray pipe off the ground and hit him. No damage was visibly given, and as Sam turned his head to look at him, he could feel the disappointed gaze through the mask. "Did you really think a lead pipe was going to work?"

Before he could respond, Haia shot a web and pulled the pipe out from his grip, leaving him defenseless as Sam grabbed him and threw him towards the wall. The second he hit the wall, he was barraged by shots of webs that stuck him against the surface.

"Four down, one to go." Haia said as she looked back to the leader of the group. "So, how you feeling now that all your goons are down?"

' _Damn it.'_ He thought as he gritted his teeth. _'If it was just this reject, I could've been done long by now. But since Metal Knight's here, I can't hide myself from any others in the area.'_

"I'd just give up if I were you." Sam said as he aimed his repulsors at the man, his palms glowing as he readied a blast. "It'll save all of us the trouble if you did. No one else would have to get injured."

"Oh, but someone does." He responded, clenching his fists and causing small sparks to go off.

Yumi and Koneko's senses flared as they felt magic begin to build up, and even Haia felt the incoming attack before fire exploded to life around his hands.

" _Sir, he's started generating a unnatural amount of thermal energy! Source unknown!"_ AVAN reported as the man raised his hands up, swinging his hand out towards Haia.

"Mutant!" Sam responded as he readjusted his repulsors and fired, using them to propel himself across the area and get between the three girls as a blast of fire shot from his hand. "Extend all airbrakes, now!"

" _It's done sir!"_ As he crossed his arms in preparation, multiple plates of armor from his arms, shoulders, abdomen and legs shot out, covering more area in order to act as a shield for everyone behind him. When the blast hit, he had managed to take the whole force, keeping the others safe but sending him clear off the ground.

In the few seconds that it took before he was overwhelmed, Haia turned around and grabbed ahold of both Yumi and Koneko. Pulling them down, she'd cover the two with her own body acting as a shield, the armored hero and a spread of fire going over them in the instant they hit the ground. The reaction time of the hero caught Yumi and Koneko off guard, noting how she predicted both metal Knight's move and the reaction of it before the flames even connected to him.

Sam's HUD was going crazy as AVAN was attempting to scan and identify the energy within the man, causing him to be overwhelmed and unable to recover before crashing into the wall at the end of the alley. With the added impact of the flames, dozens of cracks formed in the concrete before steam began to emerge from his armor. It had taken him a couple of seconds for both him and his systems to recover, his vision clearing in time to see that the man had vanished.

"Damn… what was that explosion?" Sam questioned as he placed a hand on the top of his faceplate, slowly standing up. "I don't recall many mutants being able to cause point blank explosions like that."

" _As far as my database shows sir, there aren't any."_ AVAN stated. _"I also cannot identify the energy that had suddenly built up within the man's body. I'll widen my search and try to find and similarities it has with every known form of energy known."_

"Do it." Sam ordered before looking over to the girls, seeing them all slowly get up while looking at the damage done. "Are all of you okay?" He asked as all of his airbrakes retracted back into his armor, walking over to get a closer look at them.

"A little to close for my taste, but I think I'm mostly untouched." Haia responded as she helped Koneko up. "What about you two? Any serious injuries?"

"No, I don't think I got hit by anything." Yumi answered, feinting a shocked and exhausted face.

"…I'm okay." Koneko said, sounding about the same despite what had just happened. To both her and Yumi, the fire would have done next to nothing than singe their clothes. Whoever the man was, he wasn't very good at controlled magic, so he wouldn't have been an actual threat to them. If anything, the only thing he had going for him was the surprise factor, and even then that wouldn't have even gotten Koneko to move.

"I wasn't expecting a mutant to show up here like that." Sam said once his scans showed no injuries on him or anyone else. His armor was dented slightly on the stomach, with several scratches on his back and faceplate, but no direct damage was suffered. "Guess we can rule out him being one of the good ones with actions like that."

"Which means we're going to go after him." Haia stated before looking back to the girls. "Listen, I know it was probably a lot, but we're going to need you two to find authorities and warn them of the mutant. Can you do that for us?"

"Yes, of course." Yumi responded, keeping up the image of a scared high school student for the two heroes.

"Thank you, be careful when you go." She said before turning back to Metal Knight, who nodded once and took off into the air. She'd then fire a web to the top of the nearest building and swung up, reaching the top in a single pull and flipped over the end.

"…He was a Devil." Koneko said to Yumi once the two were gone, getting a nod in return.

"I know Koneko." The Knight responded, her eyes narrowing as a red magic circle formed in her hand. "And given his lack of control, he has to be a Stray."

"…Should we deal with him?"

"Rias told us to observe Metal Knight, and if he's going after him we can't risk being discovered." Yumi stated, looking down to her junior. "For now him and Arachnid will be on their own. But if it becomes too much we'll step in."

"…Okay." Koneko nodded, the magic circle growing and forming over them. As the circle descended past them, they slowly disappeared along with it until both were invisible to the human eye, vanishing without a trace.

* * *

"Damn fucking Metal Knight showing up that quickly." The man grunted as he walked in the sewer, growling while punching his fist into the wall. "I didn't escape from my master to get caught by a damn human wearing a tin can. If I just had a little bit more time I could've had those two and been on my way."

"Oh, sounds like you have a bit of a problem with the new hero." The man jumped and raised a hand at the sound of a new voice, a strange artificial darkness keeping his vision from seeing him besides his glowing yellow eyes.

"Who the Hell are you?" The Devil questioned, fire sparking to life in his palm.

"Someone with a similar problem." The voice responded, his eyes blinking in disinterest at the fire pointed at him. "I have a few plans that I have for this town, and Metal Knight poses a potential risk to my research. So I need him gone."

"Interesting, but then what does that have to do with me?" The Devil questioned, keeping his hand pointed at the source of the voice.

"Well, that's quite simple really. All I need…" The voice chuckled, the eyes visibly approaching at the sound of footsteps. As it got closer, the Devil's eyes widened in shock as it began to tower over him, and the artificial darkness vanished, revealing a giant green Pteranodon standing over him. "Is your body."

"What the Hell are you?"

The Pteranodon then grinned, its rows of teeth visible as it looked down to him. "The future." It's right clawed hand then reached and grabbed his face, lifting him up and slamming him against the wall. His left hand came up holding an injector, a vial with a glowing green liquid flowing through it held in it. "Now hold still, this'll only hurt for a second."

"A-AAAAAAAAAAAAA **AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

* * *

 **(A/N): So, this is really fucking late. And I am really sorry over that. No excuse is fair to it, but all i can say is dealing with an original arc is difficult for me, even more since I started with it for this story. I don't plan on this arc being too long, just a way to introduce a couple villains and the rest of the heroes that'll be regulars in the story. After about five or so more chapters the canon will likely begin, but I promise to put more focus into this and avoid dropping it for over a month. I'm really sorry and hope that I both made this chapter good enough for the wait and that the rest can live up to any expectations.**


	6. Stray Devil

"Where the hell did he go?" Sam grunted as he landed on the clock tower in Kuoh, standing on one of the four edges. He was using his HUD to try and find the man's energy signature, but because of how foreign it was to AVAN's database he couldn't find any traces of it. That or the man was capable of hiding it somehow.

"Can you not find him?" Haia asked as she swung and landed above him, sticking to the side of the wall while looking down to him.

The armored hero shook his head in response, his eyes dancing around his HUD in searching every possible signal. "It's almost like he upped and vanished. Which doesn't make any sense, the power he had was so high despite appearing virtually out of nowhere. It shouldn't be capable of just going away like that."

"Could he have hidden somewhere?"

"If he was anywhere within 10 miles I would have picked him up. No, something either happened to him that's changed his power or he's somehow dead."

"Well, we've been looking for four hours now and he's nowhere to be seen." Haia stated as she climbed down, flipping over and hanging to the wall with a hand and foot. "It's going to be late soon, I'm not sure about you but I can't stay out on patrol for much longer. I have school tomorrow and I can't risk showing up late again."

"I get that." Sam nodded as he looked over to her. With the information brought to him, he was able to narrow that Arachnid was a teenager, likely going to Kuoh like him. "It's only eight though, so I can spend a couple more hours out looking. Why don't you head home while I look for our mutant friend?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea though? I might not have long, but if you run into him alone we aren't sure how strong he is. What if we're both needed to beat him?"

"I think I can handle him. But even if I can't, that's all the more reason I need to be out here looking for him." Sam then activated his thrusters, hovering up while looking to Arachnid. "I'll check every possible place he could hide, I don't want him going loose while we're unable to track him. Go get some rest, you'll need it for tomorrow's test." He then too off, leaving Haia before she could respond.

"He really is a hero." She smiled underneath her mask as he flew away, heading for the outskirts of Kuoh with a purpose.

.

.

.

"Wait… how does he know about my test!?"

"AVAN, call Ise for me." Sam ordered as he flew, the call signal coming up on his HUD. "Come on, come on, pick up."

The signal then cut a second later, getting an irritated grunt from him. _"I'm sorry sir, but it appears Mr. Hyoudou's phone is turned off."_

"Turned off? Why the hell did he turn off his phone?" Sam asked to himself as he rolled his eyes. "Of all the times for you to actually do that, it had to be when a crazy fire throwing mutant is running around?" He then sighed, shaking his head as he looked up to AVAN's icon. "Can you track his phone still?"

 _"The ID chip placed into his phone requires the device to be on. I cannot track him until his phone is turned back on."_

"Damn it Issei."

* * *

"Oh man, that was kick ass!" Matsuda grinned as he and the others walked out of the movie theater. After going to the arcade for a couple hours, the group had went to see a movie, seeing as they had the time to do so.

"The special effects were really on point too!" Motohama agreed. "CGI's really come a long way!"

"Not to mention all the epic scenes and smokin' hot babes that were in it!"

"Well, there they go." Aika shook her head, seeing the three boys all practically forgetting about the movie to talk about the women. Although as they were, she grabbed a hold of Issei's shirt, tugging on it to get his attention. "Hey, Ise, I got a question for you."

"What is it?" He responded.

"What's Sam up to that's so important that he couldn't hang with us?" She asked, getting him to mentally kick himself. "We don't see him for years, and when he finally comes back he's suddenly too busy to do anything?"

"Yeah, what's up with that man?" Matsuda added in. "The guy was so excited to be back, but now he acts like we're not even here anymore! He's holed himself up in his lab for so long he might as well not even come here!"

"A-Ah, well that's… there's a bit more to it then I could… ummmm…" Issei started to sweat as the four all stopped, the boy the center of focus as they all stared him down. "He's just… uhhhhh… he's busy with an internship!" He said, the thought the first thing that he could come up with.

"An internship?" Motohama echoed, raising an eyebrow. "You sure about that man?"

"Y-Yeah, isn't it obvious?" Issei stated, sounding a bit more confident as he went on. "Sam's a wicked engineer, he's already got tons of offers for work even outside his dad's company. He's taking the opportunities to work on some of his older projects to really wow some of them."

"Any idea who they are?" Aika asked, not buying it and staring harsher at him. "I'd love to know some of them."

"O-Oh well I don't know them by name, but Sam does!" Issei said as he reached into his pocket for his phone. "Here, I'll call him and… huh?" reaching around, Issei realized that his phone wasn't in his right pocket. Reaching for his left pocket, he learned that his phone wasn't there either, and patted his coat pockets to look. "Damn it, I must have left my phone in the theater."

"Oh, well come on man let's go get it." Matsuda said, turning back to the theater.

Before any of them took a step, they felt the ground shake a bit from underneath them, causing all of them to freeze. "Did… did any of you just feel that?" Motohama asked.

"Y-Yeah." The rest responded, looking down to their feet the ground shook for a second time.

"There it is again." Issei said, tapping his foot on the street. "And is the ground getting… warmer?"

"I… think we should get out of here." Aika recommended, the boys agreeing without saying a word. They began to run, only making it a few meters before an explosion went off where they once stood.

The shockwave sent them and everyone in the area off their feet, knocking them to the ground as debris began to spread. Dust slowly filled the street as a figure was seen reaching out from the hole in the ground, grabbing onto the edge and pulling itself up.

"Holy shit… is everyone alright?" Issei asked as he coughed dust, slowly pushing himself up.

"I think all of my bones were shaken just now." Matsuda commented as he got up the quickest, moving to help Aika up.

"What the hell was that?" Motohama questioned as he picked up his glasses, the pair being knocked off from the explosion.

"G-Guys…" Aika said shakily as she looked at the source of the explosion, her eyes wide in fear as she pointed at what she saw. The three boys followed her finger and seemingly at once they all went wide-eyed in shock as well.

A massive creature stood at the edge of the hole, its body steaming as the dust spread and revealed it. It appeared to be humanoid in shape, but that was where the similarities ended. It stood roughly three meters tall, appearing extremely muscular. It was covered in a mixture of green scales and muscles, both of which twitched as the steam began to slow down. It had razor sharp claws and teeth, no doubt capable of ripping through flesh if it got the chance. A massive tail that moved callously, and the eyes glowed a bright yellow, shining clearly through the remaining dust.

 **"Where… is he?"**

"What the hell is that thing!?"

 **"Where is Metal Knight!?"** The beast roared as fire erupted from its mouth, shooting past everyone and exploding against a tree. When everyone turned to see the damage done, they saw that nearly nothing remained of the tree, just the base with ashes falling around it.

"We need to run, now!" Issei shouted, the four booking it as the beast's eyes glowed brighter, fire escaping from its mouth.

 **"Show yourself, hero!"** The beast shouted as a ball of flames formed in its hands and it shot out two streams of fire. Everyone in the area would move to whatever was closest to them for cover, behind any building or vehicle that was parked or knocked over.

Having to split up, Issei was forced to hide behind a car on its side while Matsuda, Motohama and Aika hid by the fountain. All of them were on their knees, avoiding going out of the cover and being exposed to the beast. Although that didn't stop it from firing blasts of fire in random directions, attempting to hit any bystanders that were hiding.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Motohama asked. "It looks like it was pulled right out of a monster movie."

"Motohama, give me your phone." Issei responded, holding his hand out to his friend. Everyone was sure to be silent, as the beast stopped its random barrage to listen for where anyone could be hiding.

"What, why?"

"Trust me, I know who to call." Issei stated, sounding rushed as he waved his hand towards himself. "But without my phone I need yours."

"U-Um okay." The glasses wearing student stuttered, reaching for his pocket to pull his phone out. Tossing it, the entire group held their breath as the phone went through the air. Luckily though, Issei had managed to catch it.

Typing into the phone, Issei was quick to put in Sam's number, hoping that his suit picked up the signal as well. _'Come on man. If there's any time to have a hero on speed dial it'd be now.'_

The phone rang for several seconds, and for a second Issei had thought that Sam wasn't going to pick up. But just as the voicemail was about to start, the sound of Sam's voice came in. "Motohama? What are you doing right now? Is Ise and the others with you right now?"

"Sam, it's me!" Issei whispered, jumping in his shoes as he heard the beast take a step. "I don't know how to explain it, but there's some crazy lizard monster in town. It's shooting fire out of its hands and mouth like some weird Godzilla thing."

"Where are you!?" Sam questioned, the steps becoming clearer to Issei.

"We're just outside the movie theater in town, there's smoke so you can't miss it." The panicked student went on, seeing the others warning him of the beast getting closer. "Hurry up Sam, I think it has enhanced hearing and is-" He then jumped back as he heard metal twist and see the car get flung to the side, now standing face to face with it. "Oh shit…"

"Issei! Run!"

 **"You're not Metal Knight."** The beast stated, sniffing the air around Issei and picking up a familiar scent. That caused it to grow enraged, its claws extending as it reared its arm back to grab him. **"But you smell like him. Where is he!?"**

"Hey freak!" Before the beast could grab Issei, a rock was thrown against the back of its head, getting it to turn around and see Connor standing in the center of the area. "Try picking on someone more your size."

 **"You're in my way!"** The beast shouted as fire erupted from its mouth.

"Oh crap!" Connor responded as he jumped to the side, rolling across the ground to avoid the flames. When he stopped, he looked up to Issei and threw his arm out, waving him and the others away. "Go! Run!" He then got up and started to run, avoiding the next blast of flames that were thrown at him.

As he ran, the feint trace of blue sparks went across his legs, allowing him to keep ahead of the fire as it was trailing behind him. However, as he had all of his attention on the beast, he failed to notice a rock that was in his path, causing him to trip and roll around the ground.

When he hit the ground, the electricity around his legs disappeared without a trace. And as he was getting up, he stared in shock at the beast with its mouth open, fire on the verge of exploding out towards him. His instincts kicked in and he crossed his arms, traces of red electricity forming around his limbs as he prepared himself for the attack. He began to wince as he braced himself for the blast, expecting to get blown off his feet.

"Watch out!" But just before the fire hit him, he was grabbed from his side and brought just out of the blast, the fire hitting into the side of a car and blowing it up. As he felt his feet touch the ground, he looked to his side to see Arachnid rolling across, already firing two webs to pull herself back towards the beast. "Get somewhere safe!"

"The hero from the bank robbery…" Connor muttered as he saw her swing into action, clearing the gap between her and the beast and kicking it right in the chest.

Flipping off of it, Haia fell to her back and shot two more webs at its feet, pulling herself under it before kicking at one of the feet. "Get going!" She shouted to the still present student, jumping over the beast and grabbing its head, slamming it into the ground. "Find somewhere safe to hide!"

"But you can't fight it alone!" Connor responded as the beast lifted its head up and swatted Haia away, knocking her back to a tree. In the second she was stunned, the beast readied a torrent of fire around its arm, aiming it at her. "No!"

 **"You're not Metal Knight, but I'll kill you all the same!"**

"Hey ugly!" Two beams of energy then hit the beast's arm, stopping the flames from firing. As the beast turned to where it was hit, Sam came flying at full speed right into it, knocking it and him to the ground several meters away. The two were both getting up, however Sam was the first to raise his hands up and fire his repulsors into its face. "Back off from my partner."

 **"Metal Knight!"** The beast shouted as it shrugged the blasts off, roaring out fire. The force behind the flames sent Sam off the ground, and towards a building. Before he hit it, he activated his airbrakes and used his thrusters to push him away.

"Citizen, you need to get out of here!" Sam shouted to Connor, his armor forming back together as he flew towards the beast. "Arachnid and I have got this! But you need to find shelter before you're injured!" Spiraling to the side, Sam avoided a shot of flames and raised his hands up, firing his repulsors as he got close enough, the impact to the beast sending it a few feet back.

"We can't focus on the monster while you're out here." Arachnid added in as she ran towards the two, firing several webs at the beast's feet to keep it in place.

"Come on man!" Connor was caught off guard as Issei ran up to him, grabbing his arm. "These guys got this! If we stay out here we'll just get in their way!"

Looking back, Connor would wince as the beast ripped the webbing off of its feet and hit Metal Knight, knocking him away before getting kicked hard in the chest by Arachnid. Eventually he gave in, following Issei as the two ran for the nearest building they could get in to.

"Surprised to see you here!" Sam called out as he raised his hands up and fired two blasts at the beast, recoiling it back and allowing Haia to retreat back.

"I felt my senses go crazy just before I got home. I couldn't just leave you to this when I knew it was happening." She responded as she flipped back next to him. "What do you think this thing is anyways?"

"Not sure, I'm running scans on it now trying to figure that out." Sam stated, seeing the energy waves coming off of it. "I can't say much, but definitely don't get hit by that thing's fire. I'm detecting high levels of radiation coming from it."

"I wasn't planning on being cooked."

 **"Metal Knight!"** It roared, fire blasting out and forcing the two to separate. At the moment they dodged, both were caught off guard as it rushed at Sam. It cleared the distant in a matter of seconds and tackled him to the ground. It opened its mouth again to fire another breath attack, but was stopped as he freed one of his hands and shot its face.

When it recoiled back, Haia lunged and kicked at its face, stunning it for a second. The moment didn't last for long, and its tail shot out and slammed against her chest. The wind was knocked out of her from the impact and she was sent back, coughing at the pain.

"Arachnid!" Sam shouted in concern before raising his hand up again, aiming at its face for another blast. Before he fired, it reached down and grabbed his entire forearm, his repulsor not even phasing it as it began to clutch down.

 **"I spent three years figuring out a way to escape from my master! I waited for the right time to spring into action and freed myself from servitude!"** The beast growled as it tightened its hold, a warning appearing on Sam's HUD as his armor began to dent. **"I could do whatever I wanted, but just when I was about to really cut loose you came along and ruined it!"**

The beast then threw Sam to the side, his weight cracking the ground at initial contact before he rolled onto the road. Slowly getting up, he was able to tell his arm was still functional, but his repulsor had taken some damage. He wouldn't be able to stay still for long, as the beast rushed towards him again.

He attempted to fly back, but was stopped when it grabbed his leg. It then slammed him back to the ground, stunning him as fire erupted from its palm. Getting the warning, Sam shook his head and charged his energy to his chest repulsor, firing a large beam and sending the beast several meters back.

This time he was the first to get up and wasted no time to charge the beast, flying directly at it as it got up. It opened its mouth to fire another roar, but was stopped as Haia got back up and fired her webbing at it, closing its mouth at the last second.

When Sam rammed into it, he pushed down and knocked it back down, using his thrusters to flip over it and land on his feet. Using the opening, he got over it and began to punch at its head repeatedly, trying to disorient it before it could get back up again. He was only able to get four punches in before it recovered and grabbed his chest, throwing him off and into a nearby tree.

As it got up, Haia would slingshot herself right at it and punch it in the head, stunning it again and delivering a firm blow to it gut. When it attempted to strike back, she slid underneath it and fired her webs around its ankles. With a swift pull, she took it completely off its feet and swung it up into the air before slamming it hard into the dirt.

Running at it, she'd fire countless webs at it, slowly cocooning it before jumping over it. The moment it opened up its mouth to fire a blast of flames, she shot and covered up the entire face, stopping it instantly. "Sorry to wrap things up like that, but I'm going to need you to stay down for a minute."

Seeing it struggle to move, Haia took the opportunity to run over to Sam, kneeling down next to him. "Metal Knight, Metal Knight talk to me!" Seeing his visors no longer glowing, she was beginning to suspect he lost consciousness and grabbed onto his shoulders. She'd then start to shake him, trying to get a reaction. "Come on Metal Knight, wake up!"

She was caught off guard for a second when his hands shot up and grabbed her shoulders back, stopping her shaking. His visors then blinked back on and his HUD was operating, seeing the masked hero in front of him. "Arachnid relax! My systems were just down for a second, I can move now."

"Thank god." She sighed in relief, the two letting one another go. "When that attack hit you and you stayed down, I thought something happened to you in there."

"Oh something did happen." He groaned, placing a hand to his head. "I have a cut on my forehead, and I definitely have a concussion right now. Other than that though I should be fine."

"That's workable though, if you were hurt worse than-!" Her eyes then widened as her senses suddenly were in overdrive, and in a quick maneuver she grabbed onto Metal Knight, lunged to the side and avoided a pillar of flames shot at them. The moment they were back on the ground, the beast was already free and lunging right at them.

Reacting as quick as he could, Sam aimed his repulsor down to their side and fired it, the force sending them further away as the beast reached them. Before they got away, the beast reached out and grabbed ahold of each of their legs, the two not even able to react before getting slammed hard into the ground.

The impact did enough to stun the both of them, the beast looking down at Haia before throwing her violently to the side. **"I'll finish you later."** It then grinned with its full set of teeth down at Sam, who's HUD was scrambling to balance out the errors and warnings. **"As for you, I wonder how well that tin can will protect you."**

"For the record, it's steel, not tin." Sam said through gritted teeth, the beast grabbing both his legs with a single hand and holding him up to his face, its teeth right in front of his face. "Second, you are the third most disgusting thing I've seen, do you know the first thing about flossing?"

 **"A very poor choice of words."** The beast stated as it opened its mouth, fire building up in its throat. **"Shall we test the melting point of steel then? I want to see the juicy treat inside melt out. I'm sure it'll taste just as good as solid."**

"No need to test it." Sam groaned, his chest reactor glowing brighter as the energy built up. "It's 1370 degrees Celsius, more than enough heat for a chain reaction." The beast's eyes widened at the moment Sam's reactor was fully charged, firing a beam into its mouth and causing a small explosion.

The explosion sent the two flying apart, Sam crashing into a building and through the wall, sliding on his chest to a halt. There were now several tears in his armor, dozens of cracks across his chest and faceplate. His HUD was blinking back and forth, a large crack making it hard for him to see properly his readings. He was able to make out red indications, signaling that he had several breaches in his suit.

"AVAN, please tell me you have something for me." Sam groaned as he struggled to push himself up, his whole body in pain from the force of the explosion.

 _"I've crossed examined every source of known energy in the Ddeallus databanks outside of your father's private files, nothing comes close to what's being detected."_ The AI answered. _"I detect radiation, but there's something much more potent within it, and I can't discover what it is."_

"Great, so still nothing." He groaned, getting up to a single knee as he placed a hand on his faceplate.

 _'Come on Sam, think! What could this thing be using and what's a way to counter it? There has to be something that I can use against it!'_

"Metal Knight!" Sam's head snapped to his right when he heard Issei call out to him, turning to see over a dozen people were hiding in the building. "Look out!"

Sam wasn't able to react in time as the rest of the wall he crashed from was knocked away, the beast grabbing his chest and raising him up. It had several burn scars across its face, along with several shards of debris dug through its skin.

 _'Its hide can be punctured!'_ Sam thought before he felt a blistering pain, feeling the beast's hand heat up the metal around him, attempting to dig its claws into the armor.

 **"I will rip you to pieces!"** It shouted, blood and saliva coming from its mouth as it tightened its grip. In a attempt to free himself, Sam raised up his stable repulsor and shot a point blank blast into the beasts eye, getting a roar of pain from it before it threw him out the building, hitting into and flipping over a car before landing on his back on the street.

Gasping as he felt the air get knocked out of him, Sam was barely able to even move before the beast appeared again and slammed its foot onto his chest, bending the heated metal and nearly breaking the glass to his reactor.

 **"Why won't you just keel over and die!"** The beast roared as it repeated the process, slamming its jagged heel into the armor and stabbing into his gut by a few inches.

"G-GAAAAH!" Sam screamed out in pain as he felt the talon dig into him, the taste of copper filling his mouth as the breach warning was going off. With his remaining strength he reached to the beasts foot and tried to push it off, barely getting it an inch off him as it pushed down harder.

 **"So the metal man does bleed?"** The beast grinned as it looked down to him, its blood dropping onto the cracks in his faceplate. **"Good, that means you're capable of death. Let's see how much you can take then, shall we?"** It then began to push down more, the inch Sam fought to gain being lost. Feeling the pain start to get to him, the pilot quickly tried to think of any way he could stop this, his eyes opening as a plan came to mind.

"Flares… flares!" two compartments on the sides of his hips then opened and aimed at the beast's face, firing over a dozen flares right at it. The flares struck at the beast's senses, blinding it as one hit right into its damages eye, forcing it to recoil back and pull the talon out of Sam's stomach.

 **"You damn human!"** The beast bellowed as it reared its hands back, fire forming in the palms as it readied an attack while Sam struggled to get up. **"Forget eating you, I'll just burn you to molten waste!"** Before it could fire its attacks, its hands were enveloped in webs and were pulled behind its back, nearly dislocating both its shoulders.

Sam's eyes widened in shock as he saw Arachnid standing behind it, pulling onto her webs with all her strength. "I… I can hold onto it for a few more seconds!" She shouted, her feet slowly sliding as the beast was fighting against her hold.

 **"You damn bug!"** It shouted as it eventually burned the webbing away, grabbing what remained and spinning around, using it to slam Haia into the ground with enough force to form cracks around her. It then walked towards her, grabbing around her abdomen and lifting her up. **"I've had enough of you getting in the way, I'll squash you like the insect you are!"**

It then tightened its grip, the sound of flesh being pierced as its claws began to dig into her skin. The pain building up was becoming unbearable for Haia, her eyes wide from the shock taking over. Just when she was expecting the claws to reach her organs, she felt the beast suddenly release her and drop, seeing its head recoil from an attack from behind.

 _'Metal Knight…'_ She thought absentmindedly, her conscious fading when she fell to the ground.

The beast growled and turned to Sam, seeing him fire a second repulsor blast at its face as he flew right at it. When he was close enough it slashed out with its right claw, missing as he narrowly flew under it and skidded his boots across the road. The moment he stopped he quickly activated his jets again and flew up to its face, slamming his fist across it and stunning it again.

Several of its teeth were knocked out from the impact, and its eyes widened in pure rage as it looked to him, firing fire from its mouth and hitting him point blank. Sam was sent crashing back, a continuous stream of flames heating him as he flipped over his shoulder and landed on a single knee. He felt his body screaming in pain as he held his right arm up, trying to fight back the flames as he began to stand up.

"You stupid lizard…" He groaned through the pain, feeling his limit being reached as he glared at the beast. "I'll take you down!" Firing his repulsor to the side, Sam escaped the flames and flew right at the beast, maneuvering around it and flying up to its back before wrapping both his arms around its neck.

 **"You bastard! Get off me!"** The beast bellowed as it tried to reach him, slamming him into the nearest wall to try and shake him off.

Sam coughed out blood from the impact, his back feeling shattered. But he held on and continued to tighten his grip, trying to choke it out but to no effect. It then ran and slammed him into a car, the damage cracking his HUD and setting his warnings off to critical.

 _'I can't hold on anymore!'_ He thought in pain as he closed his eyes, feeling him begin to lose his grip. _'I can't let him go, if I do I'm as good as dead… but I can't stop him this way! The only way I can hurt it is to…'_ His eyes then slowly opened as he remembered the rubble in the beast's body, realizing there was only one last way he could combat the beast.

"AVAN! Airbrakes now!" At his order, the airbrakes shot out, the metal plates from his arms shooting out and digging into the beast's neck. The sudden pain caused the beast to roar in agony, blood quickly escaping from it as it tried desperately to shake him off. The more it did however, the deeper the airbrakes dug into its neck, causing more blood to escape.

Eventually the beast felt its eyes grow weak, and after one last attempt to reach for Sam, it fell forward to its chest, causing the ground to shake from its full dead weight.

Sam deactivated the airbrakes and fell off from the beast's back, falling onto his chest in pain. _'I… I killed it…'_ He thought shakily, looking down to his arms covered in blood. Seeing the blood both on his armor and on the ground, Sam felt his stomach churn and opened his faceplate, puking bile out in disgust. He heaved for almost a minute until he couldn't anymore, his faceplate going immediately back up as he struggled to his knees.

Just when he felt his conscious would fade, he felt a needle go into his arm and dispense a stim shot. The temporary solution allowed him to focus, seeing Haia lying on the road across from him motionless.

"Arachnid…" He groaned as he began to stand up, using the beast to help as he did. He flinched in pain at standing, but fought against it as he walked towards Haia, each step more difficult to complete until he eventually reached her. Moving down to grab her, he could feel his senses lose focus again, managing to get a hold of her as blackness entered his vision.

"AVAN, activate protocol: Roll Call…" He said, feeling his conscious fade and nearly fell over.

 _"Protocol Roll Call activated."_ AVAN stated as his foot suddenly moved out to catch himself. The suit then began to move at AVAN's control, the AI testing the systems that were still active. _"Right repulsor critically damages, over two dozen breaches detected, pilot critically injured. Energy at 43% and slowly declining."_ The suit's thrusters then activated and it took off, the AI able to perfectly pilot it despite the damage.

 _"Returning to base."_ The suit then flew away, people slowly walking out to see the fallen beast's corpse.

"No way." One of the bystanders gasped, seeing the blood begin to pool around it.

"They did it…"

"Metal Knight and that other hero actually did it."

"Holy crap, I thought for a second we were all going to die." Matsuda breathed out, turning to look back to the others. "Are you guys all okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Motohama said, looking at the beast's motionless body.

"I've… I've been better." Aika admitted, feeling sick to her stomach from all the blood.

"What about you Ise?" Matsuda asked, looking around but not finding the boy. "Ise? Ise!"

 _'Please be okay!'_ Issei shouted in his mind as he began to run for the lab, knowing that's where Sam was heading. He saw the damages on Sam before he took off, and the amount of blood that was escaping from the hole in his gut. It made him break into a cold sweat as he ran as fast as he could.

* * *

"Hmmm… disappointing." A man covered in shadows said as he watched the crowd around the beat's body, having seen the whole battle. "I thought that energy in the man mixed with my formula would be enough, but I suppose I underestimate the power of those two heroes."

He then hummed as he saw the distant light of Sam's thrusters, rubbing his chin as he began to smirk. "This town's more interesting than I thought, and it's all thanks to you, Metal Knight."

* * *

 **(A/N): I am so, so sorry about how long its been since I updated this story. I had an impossible to break writers block from this, one that I couldn't stand because it ripped me apart. I was crushed by news, the same we all heard on that fateful day on November 12. It is no excuse for how long I've been gone, but it honestly was impossible for me to write this story after we lost the legend that gave us some of the most iconic heroes we have today. I will try to stay on the path, not wanting to lose this story to the wind as I have so many others. I will likely put my other stories on a break so I can get a few more chapters out, however it might be a few days as this week is going to be a busy one for me in college.** **And after all this, the only thing I can say now is this.**

 **You will be remembered Stan Lee, you've given me and countless others inspiration and we will hold onto the legends you gave us. And for everyone else, live to the words he gave everyone and reach higher than where you already are. Excelsior!**


	7. Identities

"Sam!? Sam!?" Issei shouted as the door to the lab opened, immediately running out and looking for Sam.

"Over here…" Sam groaned from one of the couches, getting Issei to run over to him and check him.

"Holy shit dude!" Issei was in complete shock at Sam's condition. He had dozens of cuts across his face, a large one going across his forehead that had stitches in it. His upper bodysuit was taken off, revealing several large bruises across his torso and a few cuts across his around his reactor. The worst of his injuries however was the one in his gut, wrapped by several layers of bandage wrapping and stitched, however blood was still seen from it.

"It's okay… it looks worse than it feels." He winced as he felt a spike of pain in his side. "Argh, that one's going to be a problem for the next month."

"Dude this, that was completely insane." Issei tried to make of everything, kneeling down next to Sam as he was still running off adrenaline. "What the hell was that thing? How was it shooting fire out of its mouth? What happened to Arachnid? Are you going to live you lost a shit ton of blood!"

"Slow down Ise… slow down…" Sam panted as he clutched his side, letting the pain take its course for a few seconds before continuing. "AVAN's currently looking into whatever that thing was… all I know is that it was… was a mutant. As for what turned him into that… that thing… I have no damn clue."

"And you don't need to worry about me bleeding out… AVAN had bio-foam injected into me while I… I was unconscious to stop the bleeding long enough to treat me. The medical equipment here then… stabilized me." At his mention, several mechanical claws moved across the room, placing back into their storage space after dropping their bloodied attachments.

"As for Arachnid… we need to talk on that first." Sam muttered, attempting to sit up straight more.

"Whoa, whoa take it easy man." Issei said as he moved to push Sam back down, having him remain comfortable. "You may be out of danger, but you're in horrible condition. What's wrong with Arachnid?"

"Nothing, she's recovering at an impressive rate… at least her internal injures have." Sam responded. "She's all stitched up and will… make a full recovery. But to treat her suit had to be… removed."

"Wait you mean she's-!"

"And that's what we need to-ngh! Talk about." Sam grunted in pain, stopping Issei's near slip of perversion. "Drop the perv completely for now… she's recovering and I need you to… to keep this a secret."

"Well duh, but what do you mean?"

"We know her…" Motioning behind him with his left arm. Issei followed it, his eyes widening at what he saw. On a makeshift operating table, Haia was sleeping, having remained sedated for the duration of her swift operation. She wasn't naked like he thought, but was still only in her underwear, the tattered remains of her suit piled on another table across from her.

"Oh fuck…"

"Yeah… probably would've said the same if I wasn't in as bad shape I am…" Sam chuckled before going to a cough, drops of blood coming out as he placed a hand to his mouth.

"Man, if I didn't know any better I'd think you're on death's door. Do you have anything you need me to do to help you?"

"AVAN, get the IVs out." Sam ordered, his coughing going down. Two of the claws then came out from the wall, IV and blood bags connected to them. One then stopped over Sam and the other over Haia. "Please tell me you got over your fear of needles."

"As long as I'm not the one being stabbed I can handle it." Issei responded, going for the needle connected to the blood bag. "So is there anything I need to do before I put this in?"

"I'll… walk you through it." Sam said, knowing that Issei's medical experience was limited to what he was taught when they were kids.

* * *

With Sam's guidance, Issei was able to properly connect both the blood and IV bag to him. And after a quick reminder and lengthy process, he was able to do the same to Haia, putting a needle in each of their arms to treat them. After that, Issei collapsed to the couch across from Sam, accepting a towel from one of the mechanical arms to wipe the bits of blood that had got on his hands.

"You sure the blood's good for her?" He asked, watching as Sam closed his eyes to relax as he was slowly regaining his lost blood.

"It's O-, it doesn't matter what her blood type is it'll be enough." He answered. "And if I didn't have it, I would've had AVAN scan it and have the proper blood type to treat her. She'll be fine."

"Man I just… I still don't get it." Issei sighed, tossing the towel to the table between them. "What the hell was that mutant on? I haven't seen one as mutated like that before. I thought those things were only in those propaganda things governments use."

"You and me both." Sam agreed. "It… he wasn't that bad a couple hours before when I first saw him. He didn't look any different than an average man then but suddenly he's three meters tall and covered in scales. No X-gene naturally reacts that quickly to stress. Even then he already had his mutation, he shouldn't have gone that far."

"All we know is that he had intense radiation levels, so that much explains the fire. But there was something else in him, some kind of energy that AVAN couldn't recognize."

"Something she couldn't recognize? How is that possible, isn't she like a supercomputer?"

 _"While I am more advanced than most programs, my abilities as an Artificial Intelligence are limited due to the laws around creating technology such as myself."_ AVAN stated as her hologram appeared on the table. _"However, in this case I should have been capable of finding something on the readings. I was unable to, the energy not found even in the Ddeallus databanks."_

"Which means it's something completely unknown to mankind's understandings." Sam finished, moving a bit to get more comfortable. "Hey Ise, I think I'm going to rest for a little bit. Wake me up in an hour or if Haia wakes up, okay?"

"Yeah, sure man. Get some sleep." Issei nodded, watching as Sam almost immediately drifted to sleep. If it weren't for the subtle rise of his chest, Issei would've been concerned that Sam had just suddenly stopped breathing.

 _"Mr. Hyoudou, I would request that you assist with Mr. Ddeallus' treatment."_ The AI spoke up as Sam rested, confusing Issei.

"Is there something else wrong with him?"

 _"His reactor has suffered minor damage during the battle with the mutant, which is causing him to lose power at a faster rate. I require you to remove it from his chest and place his energy cable in him to properly fix it."_

"Yeah, yeah no problem." He responded as he got up, going over to the cable and bringing it over to Sam. He then pressed down on it and twisted it out before connecting the cable, seeing Sam's breathing improve at the trade off.

Issei then looked down to the reactor in his hand, seeing several cracks in it. The suit had protected it from any severe damage, but he could see a few pieces of rock in it, along with a small trail of Sam's blood that dripped on it. Shaking his head, Issei got back up and walked over to the same unit he had placed it in back then.

"So… how long would he of had?"

 _"Another hour at the most, the palladium core was damaged due to fragments of concrete bypassing the chinks in his armor. I had informed him when he regained consciousness, however he was more focused on stabilizing Ms. Norita."_

"Yeah, that sounds like him." Issei chuckled bitterly before looking over to where Sam's Metal Knight suit was, seeing the extensive damage and mix of blood across it. "So is… is the suit still repairable?"

 _"Yes, however Mr. Ddeallus has plans to upgrade and create a new suit out of Tungsten-Vanadium rather than the traditional steel. After this encounter I assume nothing less and the Mark 1 will no longer be of use."_

"I see… thank you AVAN."

 _"My pleasure, Mr. Hyoudou."_

* * *

"Mmmmmmmnnn…" Sam groaned as he began to wake up, his entire body feeling numb from his adrenaline wearing off and the pain all coming in. As he opened his eyes, he saw that the energy cable was plug into him, having him conclude that Issei took it out of him for AVAN.

"AVAN, status update?" Sam asked as he rubbed his hands against his face, massaging his temples as he tried to regain focus.

" _You have been unconscious for 85 minutes sir."_ The AI responded, appearing on the table. _"Ms. Norita has yet to regain consciousness and Mr. Hyoudou had left in order to acquire food for you."_

"Explains why he didn't wake me up earlier." He grunted as he sat up, feeling the puncture in his side burn in pain as he did. "How long has he been gone for?"

" _Approximately ten minutes sir. He stated it would take him around 15 before he made it back."_

"Well let's hope he does then, otherwise we got another problem and no heroes around to save the day." He sighed before looking over to his main desk, seeing his arc reactor glow in its housing unit. "Have the damages been fully repaired yet?"

" _Yes sir, all that is left is for Mr. Hyoudou to return and place the reactor back inside you."_

"There's no need to… wait." He groaned as he reached up to the top of his chair, slowly pulling himself up to his feet.

" _Sir I would advise against moving so soon."_ AVAN said, monitoring him as he stumbled onto a table. _"Your injuries have barely begun recovery, the bio-foam will only last for so much longer. You should rest and wait for Mr. Hyoudou to return."_

"I'm not a fan of keeping the cord in me." Sam coughed as he nearly tripped, using another table to catch himself as he made his way to his reactor. "I'd rather get it in now and worry about the repercussions later."

Eventually he stumbled his way to his reactor, opening the housing unit to reveal the brand new casing around it, glowing brightly. He noted the palladium chip wasn't put in yet, and reached into the drawer beneath him and pulled out a small case, opening it to reveal several chips of palladium.

"Guess ol' reliable two was damaged too much for reuse." He commented as he grabbed his reactor and opened the back, placing the palladium chip in and closing it. He then removed the cord from his chest and immediately placed his reactor back into him, his breathing clearing up as the reactor provided a better pulse to him.

At the same time the power increase made him cough drops of blood out, seeing a small silver drop among them.

 _'Looks like I haven't been eating enough greens lately.'_ Sam thought as he looked to the holo-screen, reaching forward to check his vital readings.

"AVAN, how's my blood look so far?"

 _"Palladium levels are at 2% within your bloodstream, a result from your previous palladium chip being pierced by debris."_ She stated as she appeared on the screen, next to the readings. _"Completely safe for you, however I would recommend increasing your diet ingestion of chlorophyll foods."_

"Well, what are a couple more vegies everyday?" He chuckled before clutching his side in agony. "Oh man, I think the bio-foam's starting to wear off."

 _"Sir, Ms. Norita's beginning to show signs of regaining conscious."_ The AI warned, getting same to turn to Haia as she began to stir, her face wincing as she felt a spike of pain.

 _'Ah crap, not a good time…'_ Sam thought as he held his hand to his gut wound, trying to move over towards Haia.

"Mmmnnn… where…" Haia groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to the lab's ceiling. She then brought a hand to her head, trying to rub away the splitting headache she was having. "What happened?"

"Good to see you awake." Hearing Sam's voice instantly got Haia to react, flipping off the table and landing on her feet as she went into a defensive position. "Whoa, whoa! Take it easy you aren't-ngh!" As he attempted to move and calm her, Sam overstepped himself and fell to the ground, clutching his side tighter as he felt a spike of pain go through him.

"Ddeallus? What are you doing here?" She questioned before her eyes widened, recalling the sight of the Beast before she fell unconscious. "Metal Knight, the creature where is-!?" She then froze as she realized her mask wasn't on, along with the complete lack of clothes.

"Okay, Haia… I know this looks bad, but take it slow…" Sam tried to reason, attempting to reach for a table to help pull himself up. It didn't help, as he saw the fury in her eyes as she tried to cover herself the best she could. He could almost feel the building up anger in her as she tightened one of her hands into a fist.

"What did you do to me?" She demanded as she looked to him, glaring in anger before seeing his injured state. In that second, the malice she felt vanished. A sense of concern for her fellow student as he struggled to even get up. "What… what happened to you?"

"Over… there." He responded instead, pointing to his damaged armor as a better way to explain than words could.

Seeing the suit caused Haia's eyes to widen in shock, in disbelief as she looked from it to him to back to it. "No you're… you're kidding me…" She then kept her stare locked on him, watching as he managed to lean himself against the table. "There's no way, you're…"

"Disappointed?" He chuckled lightly before coughing, keeping a hand on his side. "Can't say I blame you. I don't exactly broadcast the "Heroic aura" like my suit does."

"That's… that's not possible." Haia muttered, her shock remaining as she looked down. "Someone like you… behind that helmet?"

"Yeah, let down of the year right?" He responded, smirking before he saw how shocked she was.

"I just… how is that possible?"

"Okay, I know it's not the best but is it really that hard to believe?"

"You act so disrespectful and thoughtless. But you're the one who saved me and… and all of those others…"

"Haia… you lost some blood from the fight." Sam began to say, limping slowly towards her as she looked to her hands in confusion. "You're confused and exhausted, before you stress yourself anymore you should sit down and-"

"I can't believe… it…" Feeling the mix of shock and exhaustion get to her, Haia collapsed to the ground, Sam flinching as he heard the heavy thud.

"Oh that isn't good."

"Sam? What are you doing up!?" After she collapsed, Issei walked in from the elevator, running towards Sam as he tossed two pizza boxes to a table, grabbing a hold of him when Sam pushed off the table. "You shouldn't be moving with your injuries!"

"Bigger problems right now." Sam stated, pointing over to Haia.

"Oh, so now we have to deal with that?" Issei sighed, walking Sam back over to the couch, sitting him down. "This has been too long of a day."

"I don't want to hear it from the guy who doesn't have a hole in his stomach."

* * *

"It's just… how could you possibly be Metal Knight?" Haia asked, sitting across from Issei and Sam, no longer in the shock she was in earlier. She was now wearing Sam's clothes, having been offered them since her suit was completely torn.

"Are you asking morally, intelligently, or methodically?" Sam asked, taking a bite out of a slice of pizza. "Cause I can give an answer for all three of them if you want to know."

"That right there, that kind of attitude is what I mean." She responded, narrowing her eyes at him. "Your usual arrogance and superiority complex that you demonstrate every chance you get. It's almost like you feel the need to remind everyone that you're the progeny of the smartest man in the world."

"Tell you what, you grow being reminded about that and see how it affects you." Sam countered, sitting up as he did. "Outside of my upbringing here, all anyone talks to me about is how I'm the son of Alexander Ddeallus. How so much is expected of me and how I have to prove my worth to everyone I don't know."

"You could've instead shown by leading by example, not being the glowing beacon of how not to act with such an important name."

"I'm not ashamed of my family name. I'm proud to be a Ddeallus and I'll show it any chance I can get. Sorry that it messes with your ideal view of how Kuoh should be run."

"It's much more than how the academy is changing focus." Haia argued, standing up and glaring at Sam. "Someone like you, who has the smallest amount of humility I've ever seen, is now a beacon of hope to people under threat by the crime spike that's going on. People look up to Metal Knight, and someone like you, who comes from a family that creates weapons of war, is the last person who should be behind the armor."

"Hey, you don't know anything about him!" Issei shouted, standing up as well as he did. "Sam's family might come from a history of making weapons, but that doesn't mean he's the same!"

"He just killed the mutant that we were trying to take down, that armor is a weapon." Haia said, almost sounding betrayed as she crossed her arms. "And I once defended it as a tool for protection, were you just waiting for the right chance to test it? Were stopping a train and a bank robbery not worth the time to show off the true features of the suit?"

"He saved your life twice! And now that he made one slip up you're going to-!"

"If there was another solution I would've taken it." Sam interrupted, looking down as he folded his hands together. "I was losing blood fast, and I had no idea what condition you were in. I panicked and in doing so went against my code. I actually agree with you on what I did was wrong."

"Sam?" Issei muttered as he looked back to Sam.

"As wrong as I was to take a life, at the same time I made the choice of saving countless others' lives." Sam continued, slowly standing up before wincing. "Neither of us were in a condition to fight any longer, and that means there would be no one else to fight it. I made a last minute decision and I hate myself for being unable to come to another conclusion. But it was the only choice I could make to save everyone in town."

"Haia, what I'm trying to say is… even with the suit on I'm not some paragon. I don't have every answer nor do I expect to ever have them." He spoke as he walked around the table to Haia, staring her dead in the eyes as he clutched his side in pain. "But when I put that suit on, I promise you that everything I do is for the sake of protecting people. If you doubt me I don't blame you based on how I act around you, but I know what my goals are, and the reasons behind why I get in that suit. So at least understand that much."

As Sam stared at her, Haia returned the stare in full. She narrowed her eyes at his as he looked down to her, not even blinking at the eye contact. The tension had Issei nervous, uncertain if Haia would try to hurt Sam. It wouldn't be that far off given the track record between the two.

"I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you from now on." Haia eventually spoke, getting Issei to sigh in relief as she glared at Sam. "If I think for even a second that you're going to kill someone, I'll stop you."

"I'd appreciate that actually." Sam smiled, relieved that the disciplinary chair decided against attacking him now. "So then, I guess that makes us all in the loop then. Looks like we're going to start becoming a team of sorts with this." He then looked over to Issei, pointing to him. "Ise, I'm expecting you to behave yourself from now on. Haia likely won't deal with your shit and I'm not getting between that."

"Hey, don't have to tell me twice."

"That… reminds me." Haia said. "How could you even consider trusting Hyoudou with your secret identity in the first place? He's nothing but a beacon for trouble and I'm surprised he hasn't revealed you just to attempt getting points with the girls at school."

"He's kept it a secret for this long hasn't he?" Sam asked in return. "Issei's my best friend, if I couldn't trust him with this information then there was no one else in the world I could."

"You do have a father."

"Oh yeah, let me just tell my dad that I'm flying around in a suit of armor fighting the crazies of the world, that'll fucking work out." Sam scoffed as he turned and walked to a holo-screen. "Hell, I don't even know if it'd register with him. I'm not exactly a priority to him at this point. I wasn't important enough to raise, why should I be now when I'm only two years from being an adult?"

"What do you mean by that?" Haia questioned, getting silence from Sam as he looked down.

"Sam grew up in Kuoh with me and my family." Issei explained for him. "He stayed with us since he was born, he was actually living in my house before I was born. Our dads knew each other for years, and Mr. Ddeallus trusted dad more than anyone to raise him. Although six years ago Sam had to go back to America for a more focused education in engineering."

"Oh… I see." Haia spoke, looking at Sam as he shook his head. There were still a few gaps in the story, but based on how dodgy the two were on things she knew getting an answer was unlikely. She was also honestly afraid of what happened to Sam's mother, just now realizing that with all the buzz around him, not once was she ever mentioned.

"Okay, we got that out of the way? Cause we still have a lot going on that we need to find answers about." He spoke before the data of the energy readings from the Beast appeared across the holo-screens across the lab. "Whatever was in that mutant was far beyond what should be possible."

"You said he appeared more human when you first saw him right?" Issei asked. "Maybe his mutation was one of those weird transformation based ones where his powers appear after."

"Not possible, he shot fire at us without turning into that monster form." Haia responded. "His X-gene would have to be advanced to be able to summon his power without it, and he wasn't strong enough to be that far in the gene pool."

"He's a weird case, but there's something else." Sam said, bringing up the readings of radiation and the mysterious energy picked off it. The radiation was pulsing with energy, dozens of colors mixing in, while the unknown energy was volatile and pure black. "He has two separate energy readings, one that I can't even put a label on."

"That first one's infrared radiation." Haia commented, recognizing it right away. "That would explain a bit of the fire he was throwing at us. Perhaps his X-gene enhances that radiation to produce the flames?"

"I initially thought that too, but look at this." Sam then swiped away the radiation scale and brought up a similar reading to the unknown energy. The two readings were near identical; the only difference being that the new reading wasn't volatile. "These readings are before and after the mutant transformed."

"What is it?" Issei asked, confused at the data being shown.

"That is what I want to know." Sam stated. "I had AVAN trying to figure it out and she didn't have a clue. And having these two next to each other makes me think that this is how he shot the fire at us. The radiation didn't show up until after he transformed, and it caused this energy to go crazy."

"How is that possible? Mutants can't produce an energy that's completely unknown to modern science." Haia said. "You father's company must have data on everything, how could you not know what it is?"

"I have access to everything except my dad's personal data." Sam responded. "After this whole event goes public, I'm going to try and get access to the files he has. If there's anything on a strange unknown power source, he's the only person who could know about it."

"And you think he'll just, what, give you the data?"

"I didn't say I'd ask for it." Sam chuckled, coughing a bit before continuing. "This will cause a hysteria in the country, and they'll likely call in an expert to deal with the radiation in the mutant. And my father's practically on speed dial for this kind of thing. My dad will be buried in so much paperwork that he likely won't notice me hacking into his files."

"I don't know man, that sounds bad." Issei spoke, feeling his arm twitch before scratching it. "Digging is one thing, but what you're talking about is actually breaking the law. Don't you think that's a little too… dangerous…"

"Relax, what's the worst that'll happen?" Sam asked. "It's not like he'll actually do anything, just give me a "stern talk" and cut my allowance for a month? He won't do anything serious to us."

"Sam I… was the lab always so bright?" Issei questioned, confusing both him and Haia as his speech took a noticeable decline. "Man I… I think I need to lie… Bleh…" His drivel then stopped as he passed out, collapsing onto one of the couches suddenly.

"What the hell is-!?" Haia started as she turned to Issei, her eyes widening in shock as she felt fingertips across her head, completely caught off guard as she felt her conscious fade again. "Not this… again…"

"Guy's what is going-" Sam at the last second turned to them, seeing a lock of golden hair before his vision was blocked by two palms. He felt a sudden weight of exhaustion go through him as his mind went fuzzy, not even able to tell that he was standing.

"Sorry Sam, but I have orders." Denica said as she caught Sam before gently laying him down. A pair of golden armor covered her legs with scaled edges, glowing brightly with two silver gems at her knees.

"Your speed's improved Denica, your training must be going well." Rias commented as she appeared in the room, her glyph remaining below her after her teleportation.

"I wasn't able to completely hide my presence when I moved though." She commented, recalling when Issei flinched when she moved.

"Your power is a difficult one to master, it's okay that you still haven't gotten that much down." Rias said as she walked up to Denica. "Did you erase their memories?"

"I figured that would be better for you to do." Denica responded, looking over to the redhead. "I don't know what specific ones to get rid of, I also haven't figured out how to alter memories yet."

"Of course, I'll get right to that." Rias nodded before she placed her finger on Sam's forehead, a faint red glow appearing from the contact. "Sona and I agreed to set everyone's memories to it being a mercenary with experimental weapons. That should ease their minds into a believable outcome to match their wounds."

"And I'll delete the data from the computers." Denica continued as she waved her hand to the holo-screens, the data turning to nothing and vanishing without a trace. "Guess it's good that Koneko and Yumi were following Issei after Sam and Haia flew away. We wouldn't have been able to find this place in time to alter everyone's minds."

"Once they were out it wouldn't have been a problem, however I agree that this would've been one if Samuel didn't leave soon enough."

"Are you sure this is for the best?" Denica asked. "I mean, we've seen firsthand how he was able to handle a Stray Devil, a little bit of influence and he could be a powerful ally. I mean at the very least we could explain what happened, this could backfire if we aren't careful."

"It's okay Denica, we won't have to worry about Sam learning about this. Besides, Alexander explained that none of the factions were to drag his son into our world. We cannot allow him to discover our existence through indirect means like this, and with his memories altered he won't be looking for us for a long time."

"I'm not so sure on that. What if he finds out sooner and lashes out instead of coming to us peacefully? We'd be in a lot more trouble fighting him then just bringing him into the supernatural world now."

"I understand you have an interest in Samuel, however I must remind you the importance that the Devils keep a stable partnership with Alexander. His research will be vital to us in containing Strays in the future so that incidents like this don't happen again. Not to mention his partnership with the Fallen Angels would cause a power shift if we were to lose that support."

"Fine, but I still don't think this is a good idea." Denica threw her last thoughts in, shaking her head as she looked down to Sam's sleeping form. "But we both know he'll get dragged into this world sooner or later, and stunts like this might impact his view on Devils in the future."

"And should that happen, I will find a way to handle it."


	8. Recall

"Ow…" Sam grunted as he slowly woke up, rubbing his forehead as he felt the remnants of a splitting headache. "Man… he hit harder than I thought." Along his head were several small cuts, the large gashes seemingly healed overnight.

"Oh god, I feel like I got hit by another train." He groaned as he got up from his bed, his whole body feeling numb. Lifting up his shirt, he looked to find a familiar injury on his stomach, to his knowledge having been given by an experimental sword. "I'm going to have to talk to dad about these crazy ex-partners showing up with prototype weapons. Cause this is getting crazy."

Getting dressed, Sam sluggishly made his way down to the kitchen, where all of the Hyoudou's were eating breakfast. "Morning everyone." He said groggily as he passed to the fridge, grabbing a carton of juice and a cup.

"Sam, you're up earlier than normal." Issei's father noted, looking up from his newspaper to see Sam's tired state. "And no offense, but it's really showing on you."

"If I look like how I feel, that wouldn't surprise me." Sam responded as he poured the juice into the cup before placing it back in the fridge. "I went a little overboard in my exercises yesterday, add on my tutoring and my own projects I got a little overwhelmed."

Sam easily lied to the parents, knowing full well how bad the truth would be. Issei looked up in guilt at seeing Sam's condition, but was smart enough not to say something as he continued to eat.

"Are you okay? You look more than just tired." Mrs. Hyoudou commented, seeing Sam's small limp as he took a seat at the table. "Did you pull something during your exercises?"

"I'm okay Mrs. Hyoudou, just a little sore is all."

"You look like you're in pain, is your reactor acting up again?" She asked in concern. Her eyes then looked up to see the remains of cut marks on his forehead, followed by a small developing bruise on his right eye. "Oh my god Sammy, what happened to your face?" She gasped as she moved some of his hair away, placing a hand on his bruised eye.

"Nothing, I went for a run in the woods and hit a branch that was too low." He stated as he winced in pain. "When I fell over my head got cut on some stones, it honestly looks worse than it actually is."

"That branch must pack quite the punch." Mr. Hyoudou responded, putting his paper down as he shared a concerned stare with his wife. "Are you sure you're okay Sam? You look almost like you were attacked."

"I'm fine, honest." He said as he pulled away from Mrs. Hyoudou. "I swear, I just got distracted thinking on some of my projects and hit a branch."

"And the limp?"

"You know me, falling as hard as I did hurt my leg a bit. I swear I'm okay; just need a bit of time relaxing is all. And honestly after what happened yesterday, I think school might be the most relaxing place for me."

"Dude you're telling me." Issei sighed, being able to contribute now. "That guy was psychotic, the way that sword generated fire like that was insane."

"I was so worried when I saw the news come on about that." Issei's mother then turned her attention to him, reaching over and hugging him closely as her fear resurfaced. "You and your friends shouldn't of had to be anywhere near that lunatic. Who knows what he would've done if he got his hands on you."

"Luckily for them Metal Knight and that new hero showed up." Mr. Hyoudou said, reaching over to pat Issei's back, giving a subtle glance to Sam that the boy missed as he took a sip of his juice. "I have to admit, I was a little skeptic at the idea of a guy in an advanced suit like that flying around, but he's proved himself to be a true hero. That one with the web stuff too."

"I hope they're okay too." Mrs. Hyoudou spoke before releasing Issei, the boy having struggled to push himself free. "They both took some bad hits near the end, who knows what condition they're in right now."

"I'm sure they'll be back before we know it. Heroes like them don't stay down for long. Especially when they're needed at a time like this."

"Yeah…" Sam mumbled, looking across to Issei. "Come on Ise, we should probably start heading out to class. I don't want to make you late because of my limp."

"Sure thing, bye mom, bye dad." Issei said as he got up, grabbing both his and Sam's bags before heading out after him. "So are you sure you should be going to school? You still haven't fully healed after that fight."

"It beats staying home and having your parents probe me of everything that happened." He groaned, placing his hand over his injury as the pain made him wince. "You know your mom wouldn't let it go if I stayed, and then how am I going to explain that I was stabbed? A tree branch isn't exactly easily impaled into someone from a tree."

"I can't believe you can reverse engineer a palladium powered reactor but can't come up with an actual excuse for a few scrapes." Issei responded to the point. "You would think you'd be the perfect actor, but you retreated to "I hit a tree" when asked what happened. I mean, come on man."

"Let's see you come up with an excuse on the fly like that." Sam muttered, the burning in his side getting worse. "Man, how does heroes get up from that kind of punishment? I can barely feel my legs and my side's burning. I don't think I've ever felt so crappy before."

"That sword must have been something else." Issei sighed, putting his hand in his hair as he recalled the event. "That thing nearly cleaved my head off, I could feel the vibrations from it. I can't imagine what it did to you. Has AVAN figured out what that thing was?"

"I don't think, let me check my…" Sam spoke, reaching for his glasses in his bag, pausing as he found nothing. "Huh, that's weird… I always leave my glasses in my bag when I'm not using them."

"Maybe you left them in your room?"

"Maybe… I wasn't focusing that much when I woke up." Sam agreed, shaking his head as he felt a migraine come, getting a pained seethe from him. "My head's been fuzzy since I woke… I should've got some Advil before leaving."

"I'm sure the nurse will have some, we can visit her when we get to the academy."

* * *

The two then walked the rest of the way silently, Issei keeping an eye on Sam to watch him for any signs of further injuries. Kuoh was much busier with dealing with the damage caused, but aside from that it wasn't much worse than it would be normally. The duo almost thought that the day would be near normal until they made it to the academy, where a different problem was going on.

"I'm telling you guys, I'm not crazy!" Connor exclaimed as he stood in front of the fountain, a group of students around him as he spoke. "There wasn't some rouge scientist in a suit with a sword, it was a full blown monster! How are all of you able to forget this!?"

"You must've lost it while there Smith." One of the students laughed. "Seriously, a monster? Kuoh might be seeing some crazy stuff going on, but that is beyond what is possible."

"But there was! It was some kind of giant lizard with fire powers! Look at the damage it caused, how could a sword and a barely advanced suit cause that kind of chaos!?"

"He had explosives, the attack was preplanned." Another student shook their head.

"It wasn't, I was there! I know there was a monster, it wasn't just some crazy guy!"

"Connor must be stressed." Issei muttered, recalling how reactive the boy was when they were in the fray.

"He's always been imaginative, give him a break." Sam said before walking up to the group, passing everyone and standing in front of Connor. "Alright everyone that's enough, no need to surround the guy. He's been through a lot and needs the space, so why not just go to class and spend the day doing something more productive?"

"Samuel, you can't seriously be supporting this?" One student asked. "He's making shit up to sound like everything was more serious than it was."

"What I believe is irrelevant to his stress, and crowding him doesn't help." He then waved them off, putting emphasis to his point. "Now move along, there's no more you should have to say."

"Listen to Ddeallus." Half the crowd jumped in fear as Haia walked up from the other side of the fountain. "Class starts in ten minutes, you have no time to waste with Smith's stories. Get going, or there will be problems." The threat was more than enough to get the crowd to disperse, getting a collective sigh from her, Sam and Issei.

 _'One problem solved at least.'_

"You believe me, don't you Sam?" Connor asked, getting the inventor to turn to him. "I know what I saw, I'm not crazy. There was an actual monster there that fought Metal Knight and Arachnid, I swear it. Issei, you saw it too."

"I'm sorry man, but I never saw something like that." Issei responded, scratching the back of his head. "All I remember is that guy going crazy with the sword and booking it once Metal Knight took him down."

"Connor, I believe you saw it, but that might not have been what happened." Sam said supportively, placing a hand on his shoulder. "When caught in stressful situations that leave bad memories, humans will often imagine things to help cope. Maybe this monster is your way to ignore the horrible things someone did?"

"I know I saw it." Connor muttered, looking dejected at the notion. However he relented and walked away, heading for class with his shoulders slouched.

 _'I know something's going on, but why is everyone else just forgetting it?'_

"Not what I wanted to deal with coming back to school." Sam groaned, placing the back of his hand onto his forehead, feeling his stress cause another headache.

"I can hear you on that." Haia agreed, rubbing her forehead as she nursed her own headache. The Disciplinary chief than looked to Sam with a tired gaze. "Listen Ddeallus, we need to… talk about what happened. Can you see me on the roof during your lunch break?"

"Sure thing, I'll be there." Sam agreed, getting a nod from her before she walked away. As she did, he noticed the small limp in her steps, signaling she was still injured as well. "Well that's just great."

"One step at a time." Issei said, placing a supportive hand on Sam's shoulder. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse. You can settle that after."

"Gladly."

* * *

"Okay, what did you want to talk about?" Sam asked as he walked up to Haia, who was standing near the edge of the academy's roof, holding a green pepper in his hand. They were the only two up there, as everyone who'd walk up were instantly scared away at the sight of Haia.

"It's about last night, I wished to… apologize." Haia said, getting Sam to raise an eyebrow as he took a bite from the pepper.

"What for?"

"I put your character into question for personal reasons, it was wrong for me to question your purpose and put you under the same label as the men you've helped arrest."

"I mean, I'm not a saint so it isn't completely wrong."

"You saved my life your first day in that suit, the same day I kicked you in face for being late to a class you didn't have to be at." She argued. "I may not like you, but your actions speak much louder than your words."

"Hey, it's fine. Really." Sam stated. "It's like what I said then, I know my own goals better than anyone. The whole world could hate me and I'd still put my life on the line to help people. That's sort of the job description in being a hero, isn't it?"

"Yeah… I guess it is…" Haia said as she looked down.

"There's another reason you wanted me up here, isn't there?" He asked, picking up on her confliction right away.

"I won't be able to go on patrol for the next month." She revealed, surprising Sam at the sudden news. "My costume is completely ruined, not to mention all of my spare webbing was destroyed when I was slammed into the ground. I can't afford the amount of thread I need to repair it or replace the webbing. So I'm out."

"Maybe not…" Sam muttered.

"What makes you say that?"

"I can fix up your suit and whip up some more webbing for you, wouldn't be that difficult either."

"Wait, you can do that!?"

"I scanned your webbing when you first showed me a capsule, synthesizing it shouldn't be a problem."

"What about my suit, have some fancy machine to fix it?"

"Yeah, it's called a sewer."

"Oh…"

"I'm joking, I don't like wasting space with simple machinery like that." Sam chuckled. "I'm good with my hands, sewing won't be that difficult for me."

"You, sew… yeah I don't buy it."

"Hey, I'll have you know sewing is one of my charming features. I have more than my dashing good looks and vast intelligence going for me."

"Sure, let's say I buy it then." She said as she turned to walk away. "Meet me at the end of the day, we'll go to my apartment and give you what's left of my suit."

"Seeing the house on our third date, I'm touched." Sam then jumped in his shoes as Haia spun and nearly kicked him, her foot just an inch away from his face as she did a full spin.

"I'm still the disciplinary chair, don't think this temporary peace means I won't hold up my usual standards."

"Kick to the face still possible, got it." Sam nodded as Haia walked away, disappearing back into the academy and allowing him to breathe. "I wonder if she remembered my back's to the edge of the roof? That kick would've knocked me over for sure."

"Sam? Sam! You still up here!?" Shortly after Haia left, Denica was sprinting up into view, panting lightly as she looked around the roof until laying eyes on him. "Oh good, for a second I thought I was going to be too late?"

"Too late for what?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement as he walked up to the golden haired girl.

"I heard from several students that they saw you walking up here shortly after Haia did, I was expecting you to be found on the ground floor being knocked over."

"A little extreme, don't you think?"

"With her? I wouldn't think so." Denica then paused as she saw Sam's forehead, seeing the partially healed wounds on his head and the mark from the former gash he had. "Ouch, that doesn't look good, how'd you mess up your head there?" She'd ask, feinting ignorance.

"Oh, I ran into a low hanging tree in the park." He spoke, more confident then he had compared to earlier with the Hyoudous. "Went on a jog, got nicked bad when I was distracted."

"Ouch, must've been going pretty fast." She'd say, lightly tapping her thumb against one of the smaller marks. "I get you're a super genius and all, but you really shouldn't let yourself daydream like that when running. I don't think that much when running and I run into stuff all the time."

"Well, thanks for the concern." He chuckled, imagining the girl actually suffering from the type of incident given her track record.

"Word is you went to the nurse earlier, was it to get something for your head?"

"Yeah, it was bothering me a bit and I didn't have anything to help when I left this morning."

"I hope it get's better." Denica smiled, giving a small wink. "Scars are cool and all, but ones on your head like that don't do much in regards to appeal. And from a tree branch, not very sexy."

"Good thing I got plenty of other things going for me." Sam chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess you do." She responded before looking away, overlooking the school grounds before her eyes casted a disappointed expression.

 _'He's not a very good liar, but I'm not either. He's not even questioning if I know what I'm talking about, and I know more than him. I hate this mind wipe thing, it isn't right.'_

"Denica, you okay?" Sam asked, noticing the girl's somber expression. It wasn't common for her, often she had a cheerful smile and bright expression, the downcast was quite the difference in comparison.

Realizing her expression, Denica clapped her hands on her face, shaking her head before returning to her bright smile and exuberant attitude. "Yeah, sorry for that. I just remembered the homework we were assigned recently and how much of a pain it'll be."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Sam nodded. "Well, today might not be great but if you want I could help you sometime later this week. Dr. Lykos' work can be a little confusing if you're rough with biology."

"Thank you!" Denica cheered as she wrapped her arms around his left arm, pulling it between her breasts with a smile. "You have no idea how much that helps! Sona barely helps me with the work and I get so lost sometimes!"

"Sure thing, no problem." Sam chuckled as he stared down to her golden locks. "We should probably get going now, algebra's gonna start soon."

"Alright, let's go." She responded, keeping a firm hold on his arm.

"You gonna let me go?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Nah, you're good." He said as they began to walk, heading down the stairs. As they did, he would subtle look to his fellow classmate, enjoying the closeness but also thinking about what he just heard.

 _'I know she meant Souna, but what was with the slip up there?'_ He thought, noting her mention the school's Kaichou as Sona instead of Souna.

* * *

"Alright AVAN, what can you tell me about the goggles?" Sam asked as he was tinkering with Haia's web shooters, seeing that while they were intact, the shell could be replaced with a lighter metal in contrast to the durable plastic it was made of. At the same time, a centrifuge was operating across the lab from him, developing a few vials of Haia's web fluid.

 _"They appear to react to the retina sir."_ The AI answered, appearing next to him as he studied the wrist devices. _"They have a motion sensor attached to the inside, the slightest change in eyesight drastically alters the intensity of the goggle's output."_

"And she made this with scrapes she'd find in a garage sale." He muttered, impressed at her ingenuity. The web fluid was one thing, but her ability to develop wrist shooters for the webbing plus a type of dampener for her senses was beyond what he expected. It made him wonder what she could do with the resources he had. "Maybe I should invite her to the lab for her own tinkering at some point."

 _"Is there a reason you didn't today sir?"_

"She didn't want to, said something about her homework and doing her chores." He then sighed as he placed down the web shooter, reaching over to hold her destroyed suit. Looking at the stained blood, he felt a ping of guilt, feeling responsible for the injuries she suffered.

As he looked through it, he began to notice some flaws in the suit that he wasn't expecting. The holes that he recalled the villain put in her were there, however as he snuck his arm through one of them realized they were too big for the weapon he had. At the same time, he also noticed that if he cut through this many times, Haia would've had more fatal wounds than the injuries she had when he stitched her up.

This discovery coupled by the scene caused by Connor began to pick at Sam's mind, as he continued to investigate the openings in the suit before speaking to AVAN. "Hey AVAN, do me a favor and pull up the recordings of the fight against the one guy Haia and I fought yesterday. I feel a little off on something."

 _"Which fight sir? My data only recalls the fights against the mutant before and after his transformation."_ That caused Sam to stop instantly, his whole body tensing up as the information caught him off guard.

"AVAN, what mutant are you talking about?" Sam asked.

 _"The one that attempted to assault Ms. Kiba and Ms. Toujou sir."_ She answered, her hologram appearing on the table in front of him. _"The one that you and Ms. Norita had encountered in the process of your first patrol together."_

"We… didn't encounter a mutant." Sam muttered, placing his hand against his forehead as he began to feel a splitting headache. "AVAN double check your databanks, I don't recall ever encountering a mutant yesterday. And I've only ever met Yumi during one of my tutoring sessions."

 _"No sir, my data is accurate."_ AVAN stated as she pulled up several screens, both with details of the Stray Devil's energy as well as the two encounters the heroes had with it.

"No way…" Sam gawked as he stared at the recordings, his headache getting worse as the videos progressed. And after a look at the energy readings from the Stray Devil he nearly slammed his head against the table to try and fight the pain.

"What the hell is this, why is my head in so much pain?" He cringed, biting his teeth as tight as he could as he struggled against the pain. Flashes of the fight then began to run through his mind, recalling the moments that were obscured in the recordings when the HUD was damaged. Slowly the events of yesterday flooded back, until eventually he could recall back when he put the suit on to when he fell unconscious.

 _"Are you okay sir?"_ AVAN asked, noticing his residing pain.

"Yeah, just processing everything." He muttered, taking deep breathes as he shook his head. "AVAN, where was this data? I couldn't find this in my phone or even remember this happening."

 _"You had instructed me to place it within all of my internal subroutines. However shortly after you explained the information regarding the mutant's energy to Mr. Hyoudou and Ms. Norita suddenly the data was wiped from 437 of my subroutines."_

"You have 438, you mean to tell me someone managed to place in a virus that completely wiped almost an AI's entire data log? While also knocking me, Haia and Ise all within a few seconds of each other?" He questioned, finding the possibility impossible, with finding the lab alone being difficult to pull off. "How did the single subroutine work anyways?"

 _"It was the security program your father gave you when he taught you to build a Virtual Intelligence program."_ AVAN answered. _"As for how the infiltrator managed to find the lab, I believe they followed Mr. Hyoudou when he left to get you and Ms. Norita food."_

 _'And just when I thought I surpassed my old man in AI Theory.'_

"Did you get a recording of who it was?" In response to Sam's question, an additional screen appeared in front of the others, revealing the security footage from the time interval. In the fraction of a second Sam watched as Issei and Haia went down, not even registering what happened until he was knocked out himself. All he saw at first was a golden blur, which went away after he fell. When the blur went away and revealed the person, Sam stood up from his chair in shock, recoiling in pain from his injuries but fighting it as he saw who it was.

"That's… that's Denica…" He gasped, barely able to register the golden haired girl's sudden appearance. He then saw Rias teleport into the lab from a red glyph, causing him to stare in a mixture of horror and shock. "Rias even… what the hell happened?"

 _"I believe they had involvement in the events regarding yesterday sir."_ AVAN theorized, pulling up a new energy reading as well as the Stray Devil's. _"My sensors were incapable of scanning Ms. Entria, however I was capable of detecting Ms. Gremory's. There was no direct similar source, however there were several similarities to the mutant you fought."_

 _'And it's not the X-gene that was forced into him either.'_ Sam thought, looking at the two separate readings. He noticed it was the unknown energy it released before the transformation. However he noticed that the energy between the two had multiple differences, especially in the output category.

Even when the Stray Devil's volatile energy was at its max, it wasn't even able to reach the peak of Rias' readings. It had him thinking a hundred miles a minute, trying to think how her not even raising a finger was producing stronger and more controlled energy than the Stray Devil.

"And they… managed to delete almost everything?"

 _"I have no doubt's sir, as the camera feed glitched out shortly after the two's appearance. However I cannot detail nor confirm if they were the ones who erased your memories. I can only estimate the chances from what they preformed to my subroutines are a 89.6% chance that they were."_

"What the hell is going on?" Sam wondered, massaging his head as he tried to process everything that was brought before him. "None of this makes a lick of sense, how could either of them even managed this? They don't have the X-gene, but there's no way humans were capable of doing this."

He then leaned back onto his seat, looking up to the energy readings, biting his thumb as he contemplated his next actions. "What about the others? Rias is the president of the Occult Research Club and Denica is a part of the student council; could we confirm if they are in the same boat as them?"

 _"That would require further research sir."_ AVAN informed. _We would need to get a reading on them and determine if there's a similar energy reading."_

"Like that's going to be easy." He muttered in response.

 _'Bringing the proper equipment for the most accurate reading would obviously go wrong. Everyone would question why there's so much machinery, not to mention I couldn't possible carry it myself. And I can't let Ise know about this yet.'_

 _'I could bring my glasses and have AVAN scan them, but I don't have an excuse to wear shades in class. Haia would be all over me on that and I can't draw that kind of attention on me. That only leaves one viable option…'_

Sam then looked over to a screen showing the Mark II's blueprints, the suit mostly developed but missing a few left over design choices. "AVAN, how long would the Mark II need to be built right now?"

 _"Once the Vanadium and Tungsten is received and properly reacted it will take 12 hours."_

Sam then swiped his hand, calling the screen over and began to tweak the model, adding in more sensors and a few nonlethal weapons with the addition of the devices to properly use them. "How about now, how long would this take to set up."

 _"With the additional shipping and processing, an estimated 15.3 hours. Do you have a plan sir?"_ The AI asked as a list of the added material and equipment was added next to the blueprints.

"Trying to gather research during the day will prove too difficult with little chances of success." He'd say as he stood up. "The ORC and student council both stay after school hours, likely longer into the night for something. So as long as they stay there then gathering data is best at that time."

 _"The chances of being discovered are still high sir: 89.243% with the Metal Knight suit's limited stealth capabilities."_

"We just need to get close enough to get a reading and listen in a bit, nothing too risky." Sam said as he walked up to his destroyed Mark I, placing his fingers on the ripped opening on the stomach. "Besides, that's what my additions are meant for, we'll have more options if we get dragged into a fight."

 _"Sir, if the energy readings are correct Ms. Gremory and Ms. Entria would be immeasurably superior in power to the mutant. And if the others show signs of being the same as them the chances of success are 0.0021%"_

"We're not aiming to fight AVAN, just gather some information. Escaping should be easy, just fly up as high as possible and attempt to avoid further confrontation. They don't seem to out to kill me, since they had the chance last night. Besides, I don't think it'll boil down to a fight."

 _'I hope at least.'_

 _"Then why arm ourselves with more weapons?"_

"Like Lincoln once said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick.""

 _"That was Roosevelt sir."_

"Eh, close enough."

 _"Is there anything else we need to do now sir?"_

"Well, we can't recon them without the Mark II, and AVAN's suit shouldn't be a problem to patch up…" He'd mumble as he looked at the Mark I's faceplate, wiping off some of the dirt that was left on it. "How about put a bit of time into fixing the Mark I?"

 _"You'd wish to fix the suit while developing the Mark II?"_

"Why not? Proto saved the day against the mutant after all, it'd be a shame to just leave him in this busted state." He smiled while patting the armor's shoulder. "Plus we could use it for testing the remote options I've had planned."

 _"Understood sir, I'll begin repairs immediately."_ AVAN acknowledged. _"I would recommend you retire for the night sir, I believe we're going to have a busy week ahead of us once the shipments arrive."_

 _'You could say that again.'_ He'd sigh internally, stepping away from the Mark I while looking at the Mark II's blueprints again. _'Not what I was expecting to build you for, but this might be important.'_


	9. Investigation

"Man, how much longer are you going to be down here for?" Issei asked through a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he sat on one of the lab couches.

Two days had gone by since Sam's discovery of Rias and Denica's manipulation, and ever since then he spent every available minute working in his lab. He had kept the discovery to himself, electing it best not to tell either Issei or Haia about what was going on until he had a firm understanding on what was going on.

"Just a few more hours." Sam answered, currently working on sewing together a new suit for Haia. After trying to find a good way to fix up her old suit, he eventually scrapped the idea and was making his own one for her. So far it was nothing special, just a simple brown and yellow designed suit with a white web pattern across and a spider symbol on the back.

The most unique piece was the mask, which was folded on the table in front of him. The eyepieces were upgraded, better able to accommodate for Haia's shifting perceptions. Sam also programmed the visors to link to her web shooters, allowing her to gauge how much was in each one.

"You've been working on that suit for the past four hours, it's already dark out." Issei complained. "I'm sure you've put more than enough effort into Haia's new outfit that you can take a… yaaaaaaagh… break."

"I'm on a roll right now, I can't sleep just yet. I still have to make her the belt to hold her extra cartridges of webbing." He responded, placing down his sewing needle and stretching the suit's shoulder, seeing how well it handles the stress. "I'm also thinking of adding another web option or two for her to use, like a web net or web shots rather than her regular webbing. But I need her views on it first."

"Then why didn't you… invite her?"

"She's trying to avoid being in this lab, probably doesn't want to work with me outside our hero work."

"Man… and here I thought we'd be seeing her more… often." Issei's speech was getting more and more drawn out, his yawning increasing as well over the course of the past hour.

"Hey Ise, you alright?" Sam asked, turning in his chair to look to him. "It's getting pretty late, maybe you should head home and get some sleep."

"No way… you'll stay up till morning if I don't… keep an eye on you. And you're… getting sleep this time."

"Ise, it's midnight and I still have another two hours worth of work to do." Sam responded, smirking as he saw him jolt at the information. "I promise I'll get some sleep, but I have to finish some design tweaking for the Mark II before I can call in. And then tomorrow you, me and the others 'll go bowling. My treat. Sound good?"

"…Just… just get some sleep to start, got it?" Issei bartered, getting a chuckle and nod from Sam, the inventor giving him a thumbs up before turning to his hologram screens and working on the old design of the Mark II. "Good… night Sam."

"You too man." Sam said behind his back, waiting until he heard the elevator door close, signaling that Issei left the lab. "AVAN, how's the Mark II look?"

 _"Fully developed sir."_ The AI stated, a second capsule next to the one containing the Mark I appeared, opening to reveal the completed Mark II. Much like the Mark I, it had a grey and blue color design, however this time the forearms and boots were completely blue. There were blue angular V's painted onto the shoulder plating, thighs and on chest plate, the final touch the moveable face plate of the suit being completely blue while the rest of the helmet was grey.

"Hello beautiful." Sam whistled, standing up and walking over to the suit.

 _"All that is left is to run a few more simulations to test the weapons and calibrate the thrusters in the boots."_

"We'll do that on the road, we're heading out now." Sam stated, stripping his shirt off and tossing it to the side immediately.

 _"Sir?"_

"We don't know how much longer Denica and the others are going to be staying there." He explained, taking off his pants and underwear off before going to the side, grabbing his pilot under suit and started to put it on. "So I want to get there while we still have time, catch my drift?"

 _"Understood sir, prepping Mark II now."_

"I'm gonna have to come up with a name for you too buddy." Sam said to himself as he zipped the suit up, heading over to the armor preparation station. "But first thing's first, time to test your wings."

* * *

It didn't take long for the suit to be set, Sam standing on the platform with his arms out to his sides, the armor being pieced together on his body several mechanical limbs, finishing with his helmet before the HUD brightened to life.

"Okay AVAN, all systems look good. Anything on your end?"

 _"All systems are fully operational sir, calibration equipment ready and waiting for flight."_

"Alright, let's get some answers." Sam said with determination, activating his thrusters and repulsors and taking off, going through the tunnel swiftly before rising into the night sky.

Flying high to avoid detection, Sam was able to get a good view of Kuoh, seeing the beacon of lights through the darkness of the night. It gave him a small smile, seeing Kuoh from this height was impossible unless in a plane, and even then it didn't feel as close or even real as it did with him staring straight down.

 _"Propulsion is working at 95% efficiency."_ AVAN stated, breaking Sam's trance and bringing his focus back. _"The information is continuing to process and will be adapted in five minutes."_

"That's good, and repulsors?"

 _"Stable and operable for offensive capabilities."_

"The surveillance equipment?"

 _"Booted up and ready for testing."_

"Then time to get to work." Increasing his speed, Sam headed straight for Kuoh, keeping his altitude up until he was directly over the school. Releasing his airbrakes, he stopped nearly on the dime, hovering over while looking down. Now slowly descending, the power of his thrusters would go down significantly, making the sound decrease enough to potentially avoid detection.

"Alright, scan the area. Where's everyone?" Sam asked, seeing several cursors and energy readings begin to pop up.

 _"There are twelve energy levels detected, nine are detected together in the main building while three are detected in the old school building."_ The AI reported, the energy readings popping up with the scans.

"There are twelve of them…" Sam spoke in shock, seeing the varying degree of energy coming from each of the sources. Rias and Denica's were both cataloged, so he was aware of their power, however he detected two other high readings that were close to them. There was one that seemed to be below their energy, however it was still nothing to scoff at, while the remaining were varied below all of them.

"Can we tell which ones are which?"

 _"Not without getting closer and having a proper thermal scan. From there I can process their measurements and determine based off the academy's cataloged data."_

"Okay… we'll take it slow." Sam said, descending more towards the main building. It made him lose sight of the three sources in the old school building, but they seemed unlikely to move. Once he was ten meters up, AVAN gave a notification to stop and activated the thermal vision, his visors turning red as he got a look inside. "Can I get an idea what they're saying?"

 _"Connecting to bugs now."_ AVAN responded, connecting to the several receptors that Sam had planted into the room prior to now. It was a challenge placing them without being detected, but with Denica trusting him and Souna having no reason to doubt him, he found a few key places for the mission.

 _"-then there's the matter of the Stray's attack."_ The audio cut in halfway through Souna sentence, making Sam wince as he realized he likely missed a lot of what was said.

 _"We've cleared up most of the memories, however it seems that there are a few stragglers who have a recollection of the attack."_ Tsubaki stated, Sam recalling her voice from their brief interactions.

 _"I'm not sure how, but Connor and Luna seem to remember the entire event perfectly."_ Sam frowned when he heard Denica. He hadn't known her for long, but out of all of the students present they had gotten along the best.

 _"Connor was there for the entire event, it likely was burned into his memory."_

 _"Or he might have some kind of power keeping the memory from being wiped."_ Souna responded to Rias' claim. _"Both him and Luna have shown signs of developing power, it would be foolish to rule out they might have Sacred Gear."_

"Run a search on that AVAN." Sam ordered.

 _"Searching… complete."_ AVAN recorded, her data coming up empty. _"I'm sorry sir, there isn't a single reference to "Sacred Gear" within the entirety of the Internet. Nothing that matches with preventing memory loss."_

 _'Then what do they mean by Connor having developed in power…'_ Sam thought, looking back down to the group of students.

 _"He did show an impressive feat of speed when encountering the Stray directly."_ Sam recognized the voice as Akeno Himejima's, the vice president of the ORC and likely the second most popular girl in school. It didn't come to surprise at this point that she was involved, but it made Sam wonder if popularity had something to do with the students' involvement in Kuoh.

 _"Luna also possesses a high amount of power, however I can't tell if she has it consciously or unconsciously."_ Denica added in, noting the other student's capabilities.

 _'The quiet chick in class?'_ Sam recalled, thinking back to his classmate.

 _"Very well, we'll keep them both monitored and see if their power develops into a recognizable Sacred Gear. Leave their memories alone for now until we can determine if we can remove them safely without raising detection."_ Souna stated.

 _"Yes Kaichou."_ Most of the student council responded, Denica the only one absent from the statement.

 _"Hey Sona, there's something I wanted to ask."_ The girl eventually spoke up, getting Sam's attention as she spoke that name again.

 _'So Souna was Sona then… interesting.'_

 _"Yes Lady Denica?"_

 _"Do we really have to keep Sam out of this? I mean, he did technically discover the Stray Devil on his own."_

 _'Me? Stray Devil? What is she talking about?'_ Sam wondered, focusing his attention on Denica, not noticing his slow descent.

 _"He is unaware of the nature of the Stray, and should best be kept uninvolved. You saw the condition he was in after his battle, he simply isn't ready."_

 _"But if he knew, he'd be better able to prepare himself. Wouldn't having him with us serve as a benefit before the Fallen Angels try to cash in on a truce with him?"_

 _'Fallen Angels now? This is some Ghost Rider sounding shit right now.'_

 _"I'm aware you want to involve him, however we cannot unless he figures out our existence on his own. The Fallen Angels are in the same condition, unless they'd risk the treaty we have with his-"_ Sona then stopped speaking, confusing Sam as he leaned his head down.

 _"We have an intruder."_ Rias stated, Sam's eyes widening as he saw he was just hovering over the roof.

"Shit!" Turning Sam took off right away, only making ten meters away from the building before a tree pulled out from the ground hit his left, knocking him out of the air and crashing down to the ground.

"AVAN… what just hit us?" Sam groaned, getting up to a single knee while placing a hand on top of his helmet, his HUD still active despite the hit.

 _"A tree sir."_ AVAN answered simply, Sam looking over to see the thrown tree several meters away.

"Who the hell throws a tree at someone?" Sam wondered before his sensors went off and he quickly turned, firing a repulsor as he saw Yumi right in behind him. He was shocked to see the girl dodge the point blank shot, forcing him to fly back to dodge her attack, seeing a sword in her hand.

 _'She's fast!'_ He thought before being caught by his ankle, looking down to see that Koneko grabbed him before he could get away.

"…Going somewhere?" Koneko questioned before twisting her body, throwing Sam to the ground.

 _'The fuck was that!?'_ Sam panicked as he turned back up, bringing both his hands up and firing two repulsor blasts at the middle schooler.

She dodged back with grace, not missing a beat as she got into a readied position and lunged at him, rearing her fist back. With her in sight, Sam was able to predict the attack and avoid it, firing another blast at her body. The blast hit, however she barely flinched before turning to him, slamming her fist into his gut and sending him crashing back into a tree.

 _"Suit integrity at 85% sir!"_ AVAN reported, Sam struggling to get up from the sudden impact.

 _'That much strength in a single punch…'_ He thought as he unconsciously placed a hand on the spot where her fist connected, feeling the dent left behind from the hit. _'If I was in the Mark I, she would've punched right through and hit me.'_ He didn't want to think about what would've happened if that punch connected to him underneath the suit, already having a struggle at keeping himself up from the force alone.

Seeing a notification, he quickly turned and released his airbrake on his arm, creating a makeshift shield and blocking a slash from Yumi. The blade managed to scratch the suit, almost cutting in from her momentum alone. The blonde then managed to get away before Sam fired a repulsor, easily avoiding his retaliation without blinking.

 _'This is bad.'_ He thought as he saw Koneko rush after him, dodging her kick and watching as it smashed the tree he was next to in half. He then brought both repulsors and fired a blast at her, the combined force managing to knock her back. However with cat-like reflexes she flipped over her hands and landed on her feet, lunging at him at the same time as Yumi.

Seeing them both approach, Sam planted his right foot forward and activated his flares, firing a barrage of the bright flashes at the pair. Expecting them to be weapons, the two split apart to dodge, giving Sam the opening to fly forward and ram his shoulder into Koneko, knocking her away and turning to fire a blast at Yumi.

Both attacks managed to connect, however both students quickly recovered and rushed Sam, forcing him to use both his arms to block their attacks. He winced in pain from Koneko's punch, feeling it dent the armor while Yumi's slash managed to cut in more, leaving a mark as they both pulled away.

 _'Speed and strength/durability, these two are a good combo for each other.'_ Sam noted as he activated his thrusters and flew towards Yumi, punching at her and missing as she vanished from sight. Quickly turning, he aimed his repulsor and fired, forcing her to block with her sword before she could attack.

He then landed on his feet and skidded to a halt, measuring his distance between the two. _'Yumi is going to be hard to catch, and the middle schooler is going to be difficult to keep down. And I don't have long before the others show up.'_ Sam was counting his stars that he was lucky enough to encounter these two, as they had lower energy counts in comparison to Rias and Denica. But he knew that it didn't mean they were anything to scoff at.

 _'I'm going to have to end this soon, otherwise they'll have me completely outgunned.'_ He concluded, watching as he saw the two slowly move around him.

"Stand down Metal Knight, there's no need to take this further." Yumi said, keeping her sword pointed at Sam as he kept her in his center of vision.

"Says the people who threw a tree at me and tried to cut me in half." He responded. "Not exactly actions taken by someone you'd be willing to trust, I'm sure you'd understand if I attacked you first."

"Those attacks were to immobilize you, if you power down now we are willing to talk."

"Yeah, sure you are." He muttered as he aimed his right arm at her, a compartment opening from his forearm and revealing a grey cylinder.

The two registered it as a missile and instantly moved in, Sam predicting the action and immediately closed the armor and spun on his feet. Two small pads came out from his shoulders next, firing pepper rounds that blinded the duo before they could reach him. With them now blinded, Sam kicked Koneko away as she attempted to stop, using his thrusters to fly into Yumi and knock her onto her back.

Flipping onto his feet, he stomped down on the sword hard enough to shatter it, placing his right foot onto her stomach to keep her down. "A little quick to action, aren't we?" He asked rhetorically, reopening the compartment in his arm and aiming it down to her. "What do you know?"

"Step away from my servants." Sam's HUD immediately warned him of a critically increasing energy, getting him to aim his left arm at Rias, a red and black aura surrounding her as she held her palm out at him.

"Oh I'll step away, once I get some answers." He said, his repulsor booting up as he narrowed his eyes underneath his helmet.

"You are in no position to negotiate." She stated, Sam's HUD warning him of another energy reading, seeing Akeno appearing from behind him next to Koneko.

"My, my, this is rather interesting isn't it?" Akeno questioned, lightning sparking around her as a bolt of the element built up in her hands. "You have some nerve hurting my fellow classmates in such a way. And from a supposed hero no less."

"I've hit pipsqueak over there a few times and there isn't even a single bruise." Sam called out, standing his ground over Yumi as he was surrounded. "So hurt's a little out of the question there."

"Do you think that excuses you from attacking them?" Rias asked, getting him to look back to her.

"I defended myself, a tree to the side of your head puts you in fight or flight pretty quickly. Next time, tell your friends to go with a more subtle approach."

"Why are you here?"

"I think I should be asking that. You're the ones teleporting and preforming feats beyond that of a regular human." Sam motioned his fingers, keeping his repulsor aimed at Rias. "So what is it, mutants or something a little more interesting?"

"You think we'll answer you while you hold one of my servants hostage?"

"I think that's all the more reason to." Sam argued, motioning with his arm aimed at Yumi. "This would probably get messy if you don't, I wouldn't want all that blood and dirt on my new suit."

"You're bluffing, you wouldn't kill her."

"You probably also thought I wouldn't have weapons, but look where we are now." He shrugged, the students hearing the smirk from the tone of his voice. "You wanna take that chance you'll be wrong again? Personally I don't have grudge on her, but if I go down I'm willing to take one with me."

The field was silent as the two continued to stare down, neither appearing to budge to the other over the dilemma. However after a minute of pure silence, the red haired girl eventually lowered her hands, being followed by Akeno as their power disappeared.

Sam didn't even wait for them to speak when he powered down his repulsor and closed his forearm's weapon, stepping off of Yumi and reaching his hand down to her.

"Sorry about that, as I said getting hit by a tree activates a special fight or flight in people." He'd say, surprising the group at the lack of hostility.

"Oh… um, thanks…" Yumi responded, unsure of what else to say as he helped her up.

"So then, shall we talk?" Sam asked Rias, turning to her.

"Very well, follow us."

* * *

"Wow, not a fan of light I see." Sam commented as he followed Rias and the others into the student council's room, noting the darkness as he turned on his night vision. "It'd make you a lot less suspicious, especially with how late it is."

"What are you here for?" Sona immediately spoke, her and Rias standing in front of everyone and releasing a small amount of their power.

"Relax, I'm not here to cause any more trouble than there already has been." Sam said, holding his hands in mock surrender as he did. "I was out testing my suit and caught onto a strange energy reading that led me to here. I investigated, got caught, and the rest is visible on those two's uniforms." Sam gestured to Koneko and Yumi, the former having a few burns across her clothes where his beams struck and the latter's covered with dirt and a single tear across the chest.

"You expect us to believe that?"

"Not really, I'm told I'm a horrible liar. But I was tracking your energy, that part is true. And I so happen to decide to test my suit, so technically it wasn't a lie."

"You came looking with weapons."

"Non-lethal." He stated in response, the pods on his shoulders popping back up. "Pepper rounds, meant to temporarily blind." His flare compartments opened, showing the empty sockets. "Flares to distract and evade, a common addition to flight vehicles." He then held his forearm for display, grabbing the cylinder and holding it in his hand. "Flashbangs, to disorient you in case I needed a quick escape."

"That was only a flashbang?" Rias asked, getting Sam to walk to the door, press on the cylinder and toss it out before closing the door. A second later the sound of the flashbang followed by a brief light went off, giving the devil her answer. "Why lie about it being a weapon?"

"Would you have felt the need to listen to me if you knew it was just a flashbang and not a missile?" He asked rhetorically.

"So then can you answer why Metal Knight has graced us tonight?" Sona asked, getting a shrug from him.

"In short, I have more than a few questions in regards to a couple days ago. Precisely when a "former Ddeallus" scientist attacked with an experimental weapon."

"You feel we know something about that?"

"Oh I know you do, after all you're the reason the whole town thinks that's what happened." He said.

"I'm sorry, you must be mistaken." Rias spoke, feinting ignorance. "What do you mean by "think" exactly?"

"I'm glad you specifically asked." He smirked as his visor began to glow, turning to the wall and sending out a projection of his capture footage of fighting the Stray Devil. "Yeah, see the news reports are very different from what I have recorded, and considering they don't have any film but I have the whole thing in my hard drive I'm more incline to believe what I have."

The footage then switched to inside his lab, the smirk on Sam growing as the whole room grew silent. "And then there was Denica and you both showing up in my lab a few hours afterwards. And surprisingly, that entire day had become a blurry mess to me and apparently all of Kuoh." He then turned off the projection and turned to the devils, his faceplate sliding up to reveal his face.

"So since we're now all on the same page, is there perhaps another excuse you'd like to throw out? Cause I'm curious what other ways you have of trying to dodge this."

"Come on, he clearly already knows. There's no point trying to cover it up anymore." Denica argued with Sam, getting a pointed stare from Sona.

However, it was clear to the Devils that there was no dodging what was revealed, leading to a sigh of defeat from the leaders while Rias looked to Sam. "How did you figure it out?"

"Not gonna lie, technically I didn't." He stated, tapping the side of his helmet. "I've got an AI implanted into everything electronic in my possession. Over 400 subroutines to keep and store data, and you almost got every single one of them. However, a single record of everything that happened during the day was saved, having AVAN show me what really happened after I began to question the official story when I got to school."

"Smith…" Sona sighed, realizing where the seeds of doubt were planted.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" Sam lightly cheered, pointing to the glasses wearing devil. "Now I'll admit, Connor isn't the best source on the full truth, but he is anything but a liar. He had a lot of conviction when talking about what happened, paired up with the damage to Arachnid's suit and the injuries she had, none of it added up to a rouge scientist with a prototype sword."

"Her name's Arachnid?" Yumi spoke up, having this been the first time someone outside of the heroes and Issei hearing her hero name.

"She has webs that look like a spider's, high agility, impressive weight-to-strength ratio, and got her powers from a spider. It made sense."

"Spiders aren't the only type of arachnid though."

"Am I seriously being judged for coming up with a hero name that wasn't my own?"

"…Well you go under Metal Knight for starts." Koneko spoke.

"I will square up with you again pipsqueak, don't think I won't." Sam then jumped back and fired his repulsors, destroying the desk that the white haired girl threw at him. "I'm not paying for that!"

"Koneko, please stand down." Rias requested to Koneko, getting a silent nod from the girl as she put down the next desk she held. "Now then, how much do you want to know?"

"Let's start with what the hell all of you are and what that freak thing that nearly turned me into soup has to do with all of you."

* * *

"So… let me get this straight." Sam said, sitting against the wall while processing everything he was told. "You, as in almost everyone in this room, are devils? Real deal, Hell spawn, devils?"

"Correct." Rias nodded.

"And you're here because Kuoh is under… your jurisdiction?"

"After the Great War that near destroyed both us, the Angels and Fallen Angels." Sona reminded.

"And then there's that, God's real. As in the big guy up stairs."

"Not exactly to our joy, but he is very real." Akeno said.

"The monster I thought was a mutant was one of yours. A… Stray Devil you called it?"

"Yes."

"And this Stray Devil transformed because, and correct me if I heard this wrong, his magic and ambition went rampant?"

"We believe there might be some additional factors, but that is the usual cause of a Stray Devil mutating." Tsubaki explained.

"And basically, at the center of all this crazy shit, is you two." Sam then gestured to Rias and Sona, singling them out. "Are heiresses to two politically powerful houses of Devils, and have practically unlimited authority over Kuoh's observation?"

"We have limits based on the ceasefire between our factions, but we are the head authority figures in the area." Rias said.

"Ugh, my head." Sam groaned as he processed everything. The two now known devil heiresses both explained in great detail everything about the supernatural that they could, from their species existence, the existence of other races, and the bulk of events that had happened since the world's existence.

"I assume you have doubt in what we've told you?" Sona questioned.

"Oh no, I completely buy it." Sam said, looking up from his sitting position. "We live in a world where there's a man with a flaming skull head riding a flaming bike, a rampaging monster fueled by Gamma radiation, literally fucking Thor, and a super soldier frozen in ice for decades being thawed out and is actually alive. Devils seem like a pretty straightforward thing. Hell, it actually explains how Hydra was so technologically advanced during WW II. Probably had a Devil helping behind the scenes."

"We'd appreciate if you didn't affiliate us with anyone in the ranks of the Axis in that time, if you would." Rias said, visibly taking offence to the statement. Although it was true a Devil was involved, the war was a mark of shame to the devils currently in power, one they all share due to the unnecessary bloodshed.

"Hey, I'm not saying you guys reflect the ideals, just saying it makes sense something supernatural was helping a madman like Johann Schmidt." Sam spoke in response, making sure to not step on anyone's feet. "Actually… a lot of history's mysteries suddenly seem to stick together now with the idea of Devils, Angels and Gods. Just kinda makes me feel insignificant now."

"So then, what are you going to do now?" Sona asked.

"Currently? I don't know, maybe head home and get a couple hours of sleep." Sam yawned, cracking his neck as he did. "I haven't slept in roughly twenty or so hours, and I promised my friends that we'd all hang out tomorrow so passing out would probably not look too good."

"That's… that's it?"

"What else were you expecting?"

"You just discovered that the supernatural world exists. That as a human, you're near the bottom of importance, a small grain of salt in the sea."

"I always wanted to know what it's like to be another face."

"Your current power is so insignificant that the chances of a Stray Devil killing you are extremely high."

"Eh, I survived once. I'm sure I can pull a couple more miracles as long as I'm careful."

"We know who you are, you secret identity is at risk."

"Well I haven't been great at keeping it so far. Besides, you seem secretive enough not to reveal anything damaging."

"You're… taking this much better than expected." Rias admitted.

"Oh don't get me wrong, I'm panicking out of my mind internally and realizing I'm going to have to develop a Mark III as soon as possible based on how I was only able to handle two of you at once. Both of which weren't trying to kill me, which I'm thankful for. Not so thankful for the bruise the tree is going to give me though."

"Sorry about that, we were limited on methods of bringing you down quick enough." Yumi apologized, bowing as she did.

"…I'm not sorry." Koneko admitted, getting Sam to gesture between their eyes. A sort of rivalry was already brewing, and it was one without explanation.

"Well Yumi, I'm sorry I broke your sword." Sam said, looking back to the Knight. "If you want I can fix it for you, maybe make it out of something more… durable."

"Oh no, I'm perfectly fine." Yumi demonstrated this by placing her hand out a summoning a magic circle before pulling a brand new sword out of it, identical to the one she used earlier.

"…And that's an example of a Sacred Gear?" Sam questioned, recalling the shorter lecture on how a Sacred Gear was a sort of relic or power gifted to few individuals, with those who learn to master them becoming very influential in the world if it was powerful enough.

"You would be correct in that assumption." Rias nodded. "Kiba's Sacred Gear is Sword Birth, a power that allows her to create countless types of Demonic swords."

"That's cool, I suck with a sword but being able to summon an unlimited supply of that kind of stuff would actually be beneficial to me."

"In what way?"

"Pretty simple, limitless supply of different strength metals." Sam detailed. "I'm guessing her current sword is basic, not meant for power or speed but just a regular demonic sword?" Getting a nod from the blonde, he continued while tapping the marks she left on his armor. "Her regular blade left a few impressions on my armor, which is made of extremely durable metal. I broke it, but I'm curious on how it would operate as an armor if other features were put in."

"You're limited in your supply of metal?" Denica asked. "I thought your dad was one of the richest guys on the planet, how would you have trouble getting supplies?"

"Do you really think I told him about this?" He motioned to his suit. "I have the limits of my allowance I get to buy the metal and wiring needed without him figuring it out. Now my allowance is pretty good, but once I make a suit I'm limited for the rest of the month to only making repairs. The amount of material needed to make a suit is way past my capabilities."

"Well then, how about a deal?"

"With a Devil, isn't there a phrase specifically not to do that?"

"Does that sway you at all?"

"Eh, I like to gamble a bit. Shoot."

"As it stands, you're now involved in the supernatural world with limited supplies and no allies on any side. To just about anyone, this would often result in a swift end." Rias began to speak, getting Sam to cross his arms as he listened. "If you were to pledge your allegiance to us, we could offer both resources and information to you. Enough that you could outfit an army with your armors."

"I'm not sure if you know this, but these suits aren't exactly cheap." He motioned to his armor. "Do you think you could even fund that kind of task, even if I wanted to?"

"Money and material are of no concern to us." Sona stated. "While true, your father's company is one of the wealthiest, that wealth pales in comparison to what our houses could offer you."

"Okay, and say I believe that part. Why a change of heart?" He asked. "Before now you tired to stop me from even having a clue of what's going on. Now suddenly we have an hour chat and you just trust me enough to offer me funding to make a suit which could be used to combat against you?"

"There are obviously rules you'd have to follow if we were to fund you. We aren't foolish enough to leave you with unlimited resources and no limitations. As for keeping our identity a secret… we were under explicit orders not to involve you in our affairs unless you discovered us yourself."

"Whose orders?"

"We cannot say." Sona quickly stated. "However now that you are aware of us, we propose this offer as a means to be an olive branch of sorts. To show some faith and avoid you joining our enemies."

"That bad?"

"In terms of power, us Devils are the only ones that have a weakness the Angels and Fallen Angels can exploit. We possess individuals with great strength, however we're unable to directly wage an effective battle against either forces in a large-scale battle. This deal would allow us to gain a potentially powerful ally and avoid the Fallen Angels from swaying you to their side."

"Considering the crowd here, I'd say you were attempting to sway me as well." He chuckled before shaking his head. "But don't mind that; what would my "rules" on the chance I accept this deal?"

"To start, you cannot create any suits with the intent of them being used against Devils as a whole." Rias explained. "Should you build one to combat Stray Devils, we would have to directly authorize it. You would also be required to inform us of the suits you develop along with any important discoveries you may come across in your research."

"If your asking for specs of my suits you can forget this whole thing."

"No, we only desire to see the design in its completed state. What you put into it will be reported but we do not need to see the internal design." Rias reassured. "We understand your reason for wishing to keep your designs to yourself, our people are still healing from a divide from a war that occurred 100 years ago. And there are many who would abuse it if they got their hands on it."

"Better… what else?"

"As we learned with the recent attack, Stray Devils may grow more bold and attack during the day." Sona spoke. "We cannot expose ourselves under any circumstances, however those Strays are still our responsibility. It would be your responsibility to take action and either relocate the Stray somewhere we can deal with it out of the public eye, or to eliminate it yourself."

"I'm not exactly a fan of killing."

"Strays don't care for life outside of their own, you've experienced that yourself. Attempting to spare them is a mercy you will find none in return. Should you lower your guard for a single second you could lose your life."

"They're alive and think, they have a right to living as much as you and me."

"Samuel, you care for the Hyoudou family, correct?" Sam instantly brought his repulsor up and aimed at Rias, half the Devils preparing their own magic to defend her if he attacked.

"Pick your next words very, VERY, carefully." Sam threatened, his repulsor glowing to life. He knew even firing the blast would doom him, but at that moment he didn't care. Bringing Issei and his parents into this would be crossing a line he wouldn't hesitate to kill for.

"I am not threatening them Samuel. On the contrary I do not wish to see anyone harmed." The Devil spoke, perfectly calm as he aimed at her. "However, with Stray Devils, even an innocent family such as them is nothing but food. After they run from their masters and mutate, they become no more than beasts. Whatever redeeming qualities they had are gone, replaced with a monster that's only desire is to grow its own power and consume."

"You put that suit on to protect people, that sometimes requires taking a life." Rias continued, Sam slowly lowering his repulsor as he did. "Had you not done that with the one you fought, many innocent people would've been killed. And with us present, it will not be the last one to appear."

Sam's repulsor would then slowly die out as he lowered his hand to his side, tightening it into a fist as he was conflicted at the ideals. He didn't believe that a life was needed to be taken to save another; it was an ideal he felt would separate him from the villains he stopped. Killing would just make him as bad as the others, regardless of who he killed.

"Anything else? Or is that the limits of what you would expect from the potential deal?"

"Nothing unreasonable, you would form a pact with one of us to finalize any business to be had."

"A pact?"

"Just a way for all of us to benefit." She explained, reaching into her skirt pocket and pulling out a pamphlet with the Gremory clan circle on it. "It just serves to solidify the promises both sides made and allow us to call between each other for favors."

"That sounds vague and ominous given your background."

"She simply means if you need assistance with something such as lab work or helping with your housework." Sona explained, getting a sigh from the inventor. "There would be a small fine to equal the service, however that will be paid in your updates with your suits. We may also do the opposite and request that you may help us with business that requires a more… human touch."

"I get the idea a lot of humans know about the supernatural, and take advantage of the fact that you can't go public and drag them down." Sam guessed.

"You would be correct, however you shouldn't have to worry about being sent on many missions like that. Your purpose would be much better set as reconnaissance should something unforeseen begins to happen in town."

"Teleporting not doing it for ya?"

"It'd be better the known hero Metal Knight is flying to investigate then a group of school girls, wouldn't it?"

"Um… I'm still a student too. Putting on this suit doesn't change that part."

"You get my point."

"I know, I just like being a smartass." He then sighed and leaned back against the wall, rubbing his temples as he thought over everything. "A lot of this still seems strange, way beyond what I was planning on happening to say the least. And making pacts… sounds really suspicious."

"We offer much more in return that you would need to repay for. It is anything but a bad deal."

"Yeah, that's not what's making me hesitant." Sam said, running his hand over his helmet as he looked to the heiresses. "Accepting this isn't exactly difficult from my end, but as Metal Knight I'm not exactly in a solo act. What would I tell everyone, and for that matter what would happen to them?"

"It would be best you keep our existence a secret." Rias stated. "The Hyoudou's entirely would best not be involved in our business. As for your other partners, it would best be left at them being out of the loop until we can get a solid grasp on what your power will attract."

"What my power will attract? What do you mean by that?"

"Power attracts power. As you progress and prove yourself, you'll likely invite further challenge against you." Tsubaki explained. "Due to their power, Rias and Sona both attract specimen such as Stray Devils from across Japan, it's the very reason we were stationed in Kuoh. And it stands to reason you'll eventually do the same as your reputation as Metal Knight grows."

"Like Sneed?"

"He would be a prime example, given his connection to your father's company."

"Great, so I'm going to attract more crazies like him." Sam sighed, shaking his head as he motioned to the heiresses with his hand. "Fine, I'll accept your pacts. I'm guessing I'm going to need all the help I can get if anything like that Stray pops up."

"I'm glad you could see it our way." Rias smiled as she and Sona handed him a pamphlet each, the boy placing it a secret compartment in his hip. "That has pockets?"

"I'm a teenage boy, pockets are a necessity." He chuckled. "It'd be weird if I didn't have them." He then looked to the side, shrugging as he figured what to do next. "So, am I free to go now or is there something else you wanted to ask?"

"Can I ask something?" Denica asked, raising her hand.

"What's up Goldilocks?"

"Why put on the suit?" The question confused most of the room, Sam seeming to be the only one to understand it right away. "I mean, it just seems sort of unnecessary to you is all. You left America for a town in a country in the middle of a crime spree, and you were planning on taking everything on by yourself. I'm just kinda curious what could make someone in your position abandon everything to do this."

"…My family's been credited as war revolutionists, my father and grandfather both have attributed so much to the advancement of weapons." Sam said after a few minutes of silence, turning to the door to walk out. "The name Ddeallus has been measured in the amount of bodies and bullets we've piled up. I just want my legacy in this to be known for something else, for doing something to help save lives rather than take them."

He then paused to touch his fingers against his reactor, the blue light reflecting off his armor as he felt a sense of nostalgia. "My family's made mistakes, some that affected us directly. I intend to fix as many as I can, and protect the people I care about while doing that."

"You're afraid your friends will get hurt?"

"I'm afraid my family's past is going to bite me in the ass soon." He corrected. "And trust me, it always does."

* * *

Meanwhile in a dark room, a single man was wearing protective gear while using a blowtorch, sparks going everywhere as he worked on his project. Across from the room was a TV, a news channel broadcasting news from Japan.

 _"Along with the Oscorp's refusal to comment, no one can say for certain what the company has planned for the future. The same can be said for HAMMER industries, as Justin Hammer has revealed plans to move several R &D facilities, not commenting on what they may be developing."_

 _"Where's the fun in saying everything?"_ A clip of Justin Hammer then played, a blond man entering his forties and head of HAMMER Industries said in a press interview with a smile. _"I can promise it follows all the laws of Japan's trade agreements, and I fully accept any responsibility that may come from the action."_

 _"Does your sudden interest in Japan have anything to do with the recent surfacing of Metal Knight?" A reporter asked, getting a laugh from the man._

 _"Ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Maybe…"_

 _"In other news…"_ The clip then went away and focus was brought back to the anchor, showing a still image of Metal Knight from back when he first appeared, hovering with his thrusters. _"The talk of Metal Knight sparked a heavy debate in whether or not the "hero" is simply a vigilante or a secret government project by MBI. Or if perhaps it's from a rouge inventor working to protect the citizens of Japan in the wake of the spike in crime-"_ A wrench was then thrown into the TV, destroying it as the man looked up from his work.

"Pfft, helping people." He said, his voice rasp from what sounds like a lack of water. "You think you can fool... everyone… but I know the truth…" He then began to periodically take deep breaths, looking down to a ring of palladium that he reached down to, sharp metal fingers grazing the heated metal. He then gripped the metal without flinching, picking it up and walking over to the wall.

"Only one other man could… make a suit like that…" He then walked up to a curtain, ripping it away to reveal a sleek black and red suit. At the chest was a reactor similar to Sam's missing the key component that was in the man's hand.

"Your family… destroyed mine… Ddeallus." The man sneered as he placed the palladium ring into the reactor, the cover closing as power began to generate inside. The arc reactor would blink three times before glowing bright, the room's light turning on in tangent as the eyes of the suit began to glow white. The mask was revealed to have several tubes at the mouth, oxygen tanks for the man as he took off his welder mask.

His face was covered in several large scars, a mixture of cuts and burns with the largest being a deep scar across his neck. He sneered as he looked to the wall next to his suit, countless articles of Sam hung up along with dozens of designs and redesigns of the arc reactor.

"My father's work… in the hands of a…. child…!" he sneered, taking a deep breath as his clawed hand reached for a picture of Sam, the glowing circle on his chest barely visible in the print.

The man then quickly swiped his hand across the wall, cutting through several of the articles and ripping apart the pictures in his twisted mechanical hands. His eyes were wide in rage, bloodlust visible as he began to grin.

"Samuel Ddeallus… you will pay… for your father's treachery…" He stated, looking over to his suit as a compartment in the forearms opened, sparks forming from the openings. "And it will… be beyond excruciating…"

* * *

 **(A/N): Wow, this chapter came out a lot quicker than I was expecting. But I was honestly excited for this since it's the transition into the supernatural part of the story. And with it I'll be getting to the fun stuff that can be done when things get into full swing.**

 **I'd also like to take this moment to say I'm grateful for everyone's support so far in the series. Just clicking on the story means a lot and I'm happy to know that people are interested enough to do that much. It means a lot as a writer to see any interest, and this has easily been one of my quicker rising stories. I hope I can keep you interested and that this chapter was as much fun reading as it was reading, if though the fights are still a little lack luster, figuring out early fights are admitabbly a bit of a challenge for me.**

 **I'll see you all again next chapter, until then, peace!**


	10. Learning Pieces

"Oh come now dear, I'm sure you're just being paranoid." Mrs. Hyoudou responded to her husband's comment, the four residents all sitting around the table.

On the TV was a repeat of the news broadcast of Justin Hammer's interview, getting a mix bag of reactions from the four occupants. While Issei and his mother were indifferent on the matter, neither knowing much about the man, his father appeared disturbed and cautious while Sam seemed to be thinking a hundred thoughts a minute.

"It still doesn't feel right, that man always has a motive. If he's setting up a factory in Kuoh, I don't doubt for a second it has something to do with Metal Knight." The man stated, pausing the broadcast with an annoyed sigh. "Just looking at him puts me on edge."

"Is he that bad dad?" Issei asked. "I mean, couldn't he just be putting a factory here because the crime sprees? Sam says a lot of companies are pulling out so wouldn't that make sense for him to make a move?"

"From a business stand point, yes Issei it does. But Justin doesn't think just on business. No, he's up to something and I pray that it isn't something that'll put this town in danger."

"Sam, what do you think on this?" Mrs. Hyoudou asked, noticing how quit Sam was as he stared down to his cereal.

"…Huh? Oh Hammer, yeah he's a real scumbag. Dad doesn't like him, he's really into weapons development all that jazz." The boy recited, his attention drawing off from his bowl for a second before looking back down.

To the parents, they came to the conclusion that Sam was simply bothered by the aspect of Hammer setting up in Kuoh, as HAMMER Industries and Ddeallus Corp. have a standing rivalry in the technological industry. Meanwhile Issei believed he was under the impression that Sam suspected that Hammer setting up shop could draw more criminals in, making Kuoh even more of a battle ground.

But all of them were wrong, as Sam was contemplating the deal he had made with the Devils in the middle of the night. He knew that in terms of funding they'd be vital, but he was well aware of the risks that would come with forming a "partnership" with literal Devils. Ones that he knew were keeping more than their fair share of secrets.

And to be truthful, he didn't even know where to start on his assumptions. With how they talked, it left the impression that everyone in the room were all Devils. However, Denica's energy readings were drastically different from any of them. And based on how their conversation before he was discovered, she seemed to carry a certain level of importance. And then came the final energy reading he picked up from the old school building, and how he never met who it belonged to.

 _'Who or what were they hiding? And why try to mislead me about Denica if we're already on thin ice in terms of trust?'_

A knocking on the door interrupted Sam's thought, the whole family confused as they weren't expecting company today. "I'll get it." Sam sighed as he got up, figuring he could use the distraction until he and the others went out for bowling.

 _'Horrible distraction.'_ He would think as he opened the door, flinching in surprise as he saw who was on the other side.

"Samuel! Sammy! The Big S! How've ya been?" Justin spoke with enthusiasm as he moved in right away, wrapping an arm around the boy's shoulders in a half embrace. "God would you look at how much you've grown, two years and you've gotten so big."

"Justin?" Mr. Hyoudou spoke in shock as he was instantly up to his feet, seeing the businessman setting off his instincts.

"Gorou, as I live and breath, you don't look half as old as I was expecting you would!" Justin laughed as he kept his arm around Sam. "I must say, I'm a little surprised at the choice of residence you have. I would've expected with having good ol' Alex as a friend you'd be living it up in a five story mansion at the minimum."

"It's all we need and it's been good for raising Issei." Gorou responded, his gaze narrowing as he watched Justin walk in with Sam still held close. "What are you doing here?"

"Such hostility, is that how you treat a guest wishing to visit his friendly rival's son?" Justin asked before turning to Mrs. Hyoudou, giving a light bow as he did. "You're looking as radiant as ever, Sachiko."

"Always a pleasure, Justin." She smiled in response, being a respectful hostess for the man.

"And you're…" Justin started to hum as he looked to Issei, thinking hard to remember the boy's name. "…Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn… Isaiah?"

"Issei."

"Right, right, sorry I've had a lot of paper work today and the last time I saw you were about… Gorou when was the last time I met your kid again?"

"Skip the casual chat Justin, what are you here for?" Gorou responded, keeping a measuring gaze on the man as he kept a hold on Sam.

"Always the suspicious one, you could help to loosen up a bit. I just wanted to see good little Samuel since I was in the neighborhood. My new factory is going to be built on the edge of town and since it's my first one in Japan I'd figure a public appearance would do swell to show I'm concerned for this country's affairs."

"Uh huh, and how about the real reason this time?"

"Gorou, I am ashamed to know you think so little of me and am insulted at the… pfft! Okay I'm sorry I couldn't help it!" Justin then began to laugh as he was "caught red handed," stepping away from Sam to look to the boy. "Truthfully, I wanted to talk to Samuel about this Metal Knight caricature that's shown up."

The mention of his alter ego caused both Sam and Issei's mouths to go dry. It was one thing to talk about the hero identity among friends and other students, who was going to be able to put the dots together? But dealing with a multi-billion company business owner, one with a reputation as muddy as Justin Hammer? They'd be lucky if they didn't give it away right away.

"You must be kidding me right now Justin." Gorou shook his head as he walked up to the man, stepping between him and Sam. "Sam has been focusing hard on his schoolwork and personal research. He works in his father's old shed here, how could he even know anything about Metal Knight?"

That response allowed the two to breathe easy, however the former had to contain himself more as he was still in sight of Justin, the man being sure that his stare was on the boy.

"All I'm saying is he has a power source at the same place that Sam's little trinket is, I'm not claiming anything too big." He responded. "All I wanted to ask was if Sam suspected if Metal Knight's suit was powered by a reactor similar to his. Scout's honor."

"You weren't a boy scout."

"Damn, saw through that too huh?"

"I don't know." Sam spoke up, getting the two's attention as he stared back at Justin. "I have no idea what power's Metal Knight's suit. I do know there have been several attempts at making an arc reactor similar in scope to mine, but each attempt either fails or blows up. It's possible he created one, but I wouldn't even be able to guess if it's identical to mine or different in some way."

"Oh come now, there must be something you know? The arc reactor is a Ddeallus original, there must be some kind of connection."

"If you're looking for that, you'll have to ask my dad." Sam answered; walking past Justin and grabbing his bag and glasses. "Come on Ise, we're going to be late for bowling."

"Y-Yeah, I almost forgot." Issei stuttered as he grabbed his own bag and got up, following after Sam as he walked out. "That was close…"

"That won't be the last time we'll see him." Sam responded as he put his glasses on, the data feeding in instantly. "We're going to have to work on our acting skills more. Justin won't fall for our normal topic dodges like everyone else."

"You don't think he'd actually know, do you?"

"If he doesn't already, he's going to be persistent in figuring it out." He'd say, before sighing and patting Issei's shoulder. "But let's not focus on that right now, I finally have a day off not induced by an injury and a day to completely smoke all of you in a sport."

"Pft, you wish!" Issei grinned. "You've never gone bowling before, you might be a natural at a lot of stuff, but we have you beat here."

* * *

"Wooooohooooooooo!" Haia cheered as she swung high into the air, letting go of her web to fling herself even higher. She was wearing the suit that Sam had made for her, and she saw no better test than to let herself go and swing around town without anyone else to ruin the moment.

As she reached the arc of her jump, she simply closed her eyes in peace and allowed herself to start falling. The suit fit so well, she couldn't even tell that she was wearing anything; the wind tickling her skin. When she was coming close to the ground, her eyes snapped to attention and she fired another line of web, pulling herself forward and back up.

Seeing a decent sized building come up, she directed herself to swing up and land on her feet, running up the building with passion before reaching the top and flipping forward. Landing on the roof, the girl couldn't help but cheer in satisfaction, looking out to Kuoh before sighing in content.

"Even the town looks clearer with these…" She'd say to herself, flicking her right eyepiece, calibrating it for a second before it returned to normal.

As much as he annoyed her, Haia had to admit that Sam knew what he was doing when he made her suit. Aside from how comfortable the suit was, the added belt made it easier to carry more of her web fluids, and the cartridges were smaller than her old ones but seemed to somehow contain more. The visors he put into her mask were also leagues above what she had before. Her original pair would only dampen her eyesight to allow her to see normally; but the new ones completely changed up her vision, giving her perfect vision. She hadn't gotten to test any of the features on her web shooters, but what she had experienced so far was beyond what she was hoping for.

"The privileges of being a genius son of a billionaire." She spoke quietly as she sat down, looking down to Kuoh's streets before she heard a ringing in her mask, groaning as she saw a picture of Sam pop up.

 _'And the one downside…'_ She thought, remembering the implanted communicator. Nothing she didn't expect, but it now meant he had a way of calling and tracking her wherever she was.

 _"Hey there spider girl, how's the new suit working for you?"_ Sam asked.

"Great, actually. You managed to make a suit that isn't several tons of metal." She responded, getting a chuckle from the boy.

 _"Before I learned to build machines, I learned how to stitch holes in my clothes. Good to know I have a future in making hero suits though, that'll look good on any resume."_

"Very funny, where are you anyways?" She asked back. "Not that I mind the time away from you, but it's a surprise you aren't flying around in your shinny new suit."

 _"Not really shinny anymore…_ " He muttered before continuing. _"Besides, I promised Ise that I'd treat him and the others to a couple games of bowling and pizza. So I probably won't be out for patrol today."_

"What about later? I can't imagine you all hanging out for the entire day."

 _"I recently got a call from an… acquaintance. I'll be busy tonight as well so I wouldn't figure I'd be free for the entire day. It's been quiet for the past couple days, so I think you'll be fine on your own."_

"Just making sure you're not slacking on your responsibilities. We're heroes now, we have a duty to always be ready for when criminals show up."

 _"Well don't worry, I'm already in the process of designing my third suit, I'm also laying out the ground works for the fourth and even a special remote control system. So even if I'm caught out of the lab, I'll be able to control my suit and bring it to the battle."_

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a complete over…" Haia started to trail off as she looked down, seeing what appeared to be a couple men covered head to toe in black move into a store.

 _"Haia, lose connection? Hey mommy long legs, you still there?"_

"I'm going to have to call you back." She said as she cut their connection, standing up and readying her web shooters. "Looks like I get a real chance to test this-" She then paused as she saw another figure move behind the store.

"Another one?" She questioned as her lenses zoomed in on the figure. "What is he doing back there?" She'd say before seeing him lose his shoe, getting a moment of panic from him as he goes down to grab it and put it on while moving. This paired action caused him to hit one of the trashcans in the alley, getting him to fall over, getting another series of panic from him.

"…I think he'll just handle himself." She said before firing a web, swinging over to the building and landing on the side. "Okay Haia, time to work for a living."

Crawling down the wall, she made sure to check through the window just barely, being able to count the six goons in the shop. When one was about to look to her, she quickly hid her face, going through her thoughts to recall that five had handguns and the last with what she thought was some kind of rifle.

 _'The store's small, so if I can catch them off guard and move quick enough I should be able to disarm all of them instantly.'_ She then looked to her wrist, swiping across a mechanism to change the web type. _'If I can get their guns jammed right away, I wont have to worry about anyone else getting-'_

"Stop right there!" Just as she heard the voice, Haia's senses spiked and she looked back in, her eyes and visors widening as she saw another person enter through the back entrance.

It was clearly who had been in the back before, and taking a better look she could actually tell what he was wearing. Putting it simply, her disgrace of a suit looked a hundred times better than what the person had, which just seemed to be a tattered set of cloth sewn together as a suit. He had on some kind of gas mask, using it likely as a way to conceal himself; barely doing so as the back of his head was visible.

 _'Oh this isn't good.'_

"What is this?" The man with the rifle asked, motioning to the guy while looking to the storeowner. "You got some nutjob employee or something?"

"N-N-No, no! I haven't seen him before!" The woman responded, shaking her head in fear as she was still held at gunpoint.

"If you know what's… ehem!" The suited individual was clearly a boy, not even an adult as clear by the sound of his voice before he coughed, trying to make it deeper. "If you know what's good for you, you'll surrender now."

"Seriously? That's the best you got?"

"Hey I… I mean it." The boy managed to catch himself before he lost his deepened tone, making him appear even more childish. "If you don't put your guns down I'll…"

"You'll what?"

"I'll hurt you, bad." He warned, getting a round of chuckles from the armed men.

"This is just sad, someone just shoot him and get it over with." The head goon said, getting one of the others point their pistol at him.

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you." The boy said as he crouched down, placing a hand on the ground. The subtle traces of electricity then jumped across his body, transferring to his legs and just as the goon was about to fire, he shocked the entire room as he lunged out at blinding speed.

The man wasn't able to react before the boy hit him shoulder first, using him to stop himself and send him crashing through the window, skipping across the road before slamming into the side of a park car.

Everyone, even the boy seemed surprised at the result as they all stared out the window. Haia herself was even staring in astonishment at both the speed and impact from the blow, the split second reaction having caught her off guard.

"Uuuugggghhh…" The man groaned on the street, attempting to get up before collapsing back onto the ground.

"Oh thank god, he didn't die." The boy sighed, his eyes widening when he felt the barrel of a pistol get held against his head.

"Great, another freak in town!" One of the men shouted, getting caught as Haia jumped onto the ground and fired a single shot web, covering the gun and stopping the bullet from leaving the barrel. "Ah, son of a-!"

"Language!" The boy shouted, kicking out and sending the man crashing into a row of shelves, knocking over the contents as he collapsed to the ground. He then ducked as the rifleman fired a burst at him, missing as he sprinted off to the back of the store and hitting into the wall, hitting it hard enough to bounce off it and fall on his back. "Oh man… that's going to leave a bruise…'

"Ah screw this, a couple hundred bucks isn't worth fighting a bunch of freaks in suits!" The man shouted as he aimed at Haia, the girl lunging through the glass and rolling across the floor over her shoulder to dodge a spay of bullets, firing a set of web shots at the goons and toppoling one by hitting his feet.

As she rolled up to her feet, she kicked out and knocked the goon fully to the ground, using him as a springboard to land on the ceiling and quickly crawl towards the pair of goons with pistols. "You know I always wondered why crooks always went with such generic outfits." She'd say as she jumped down, landing between them.

The first one attempted to swipe her with his pistol, but as she ducked down did nothing more than strike his partner, getting a scream of pain from him before getting shot by several webs and kicked hard by Haia. When he landed on the ground he completely stuck down, unable to fight against the webbing that held him.

"Stick around, this won't be long." Haia joked before turning to the goon that was hit, his nose bloody as he aimed his gun at her. "That doesn't look good, here." Before he could fire, she shot a quick web at his face, completely covering his head and blinding him. She grabbed his arm with the gun and forced him to drop it, kicking the back of his leg to trip him before throwing him over her shoulder onto the ground.

A quick flurry of webs would then trap him onto the ground, getting a hidden smirk from Haia as she stood straight up. "Anyone else?" Her skin then crawled as she turned to the last goon, the rifleman, as he freed himself from her initial webbing and aimed his rifle at her.

"Forgot about me, bitch!"

"Ah crap." She groaned before rolling away behind a set of shelves, the bullets just missing her as she took cover.

"Damn it, this can't be happening!" The man grunted as he reloaded his rifle, turning to the woman behind the counter. "You think you're something of a hero freak? Well can you even save a single woman!?"

"No, please!"

"Don't!" Haia shouted as she sprung out from her cover, firing a web as he pulled the trigger. Haia's heart stopped as she could almost follow the bullets as they flew towards the woman.

Time then seemed to slow to a crawl as the bullets were about to reach her. In what could only be summarized as a blink, the boy in the tattered cloth ran out from his cover towards the woman, the bolts of electricity dancing around his entire body as he ran for her.

He then wrapped his arms around her and put himself around her like a shield, his back to the bullets as they reached him. The man and Haia were both then surprised as the bullets just bounced off his back like they were hitting a wall of steel.

Before the man could finish unloading his magazine into him though, Haia's web struck his gun and knocked him aim to the ground, setting her back into hero mode and lunged out to him. He didn't even have a chance to react as she kicked him hard in his side, knocking him into the wall. Before he could even fall she set her webs back to normal and fired several lines of webbing, nearly cocooning him and sticking him to the wall.

"You're lucky I know restraint." She stated as he blacked out, turning to the boy and woman right after. "Ma'am, are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine." She said as the boy let her go, taking a few steps back to collect herself. "Thank you for showing up."

"It's what a hero does." She'd say in return before turning to the boy. "What about you? Did you get hurt?"

"No way, you're really Arachnid!" He responded instead, sounding excited and dropping his deep voice. "Man I knew you were good after that monster, but you practically took all those guys out in ten seconds flat! And I thought I could go fast but that was something else! Is that a new suit, it looks awes-"

The boy then saw the visor on her mask narrow, giving him a foreboding suspicion that she was glaring at him. "I-I-I mean I'm fine. Nothing really hurts or anything like that."

"Good, that means you can follow through with what comes next?"

"What?"

* * *

"Why are we doing this?" The boy whined as he was sweeping glass away with a broom, Haia moving a set of shelves back into place after they were knocked over.

"Because we caused the damage, and since most of the work is manageable we should be the ones to deal with it." Haia answered.

"But we stopped the criminals…"

"And likely caused more damage than they could've." She stated, motioning to the window with her thumb. "I doubt they would've actually done that much if you hadn't acted as rashly as you did."

"Y-You didn't have to clean up." The storeowner said, watching the two. "My insurance can cover this, and the police already took them away. You don't have to stay."

"We caused this mess, it's only right we clean it up." Haia said, moving over to another shelf to fix it. "We should've exercised more restraint than we did, and it isn't right that we leave you by yourself to clean this."

"Th-thank you."

It the took the two roughly an hour to properly clean up and set everything back the best they could, and once they were done they quickly left the scene. As soon as they felt they were a good enough distance away, they met in a back alley on the outskirts of town.

"That was reckless and unnecessary of you." Haia said as she hung onto the side of a wall, looking down to the boy as he sat on a dumpster. "You could've gotten yourself and the woman hurt."

"I'm sorry, I just… I wanted to help."

"And that's good, but throwing yourself out there and putting others in danger isn't the way to do it."

"I know, it was stupid and I didn't think it through. I just didn't know what to do." He sighed as he took his mask off, barely able to breath with it on. "But after what happened the past couple days I just couldn't help it. Seeing you and Metal Knight going around helping people made me want to… I wanted to do the same. I have my own gifts, so why not?"

"Did… did you just…" Haia seemed completely caught off guard, confusing the boy before he remembered he just took his mask off.

"Oh, ummmm…" The boy was revealed to be Connor, the student looking like a deer caught in headlights as he and Haia stared at each other in silence. "Please don't tell anyone!"

"You seriously took your mask off…" She sighed, rubbing her forehead as she stood on the wall, now pacing on it. "Go figure, first Metal Knight and now Connor's got powers too? What's next, the freaking pervert has some sort of hidden power in him!?"

"Ummm…"

"I mean I had enough to deal with when it was him, now I got another mess that I have to work on and he decides that today was his freaking day off! Yeah, it just had to be today! Go-FREAKING-me!" The girl would rant, barely containing her full anger before stopping, taking a long calming breath as she looked over to Connor.

"No no, I can handle this. Just… relax." She'd say as she sighed, putting a cap on her anger before speaking clearly. "Okay Connor, first things first, I'm going to need to understand what exactly makes you… you?"

"Okay… what do you mean by that?"

"Your power, what is it you do exactly?" She stated. "Are you a mutant? Did you get implants to boost yourself or what?"

"Oh, a weird bodiless spirit gave me my powers." Connor answered, saying it in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm done." Haia said as she began to walk up the wall.

"W-Wait! I'm being serious!" Connor called out, getting Haia to stop just short of the roof. "I don't know what gave me my powers, the spirit didn't remain for long enough to explain anything other than that it will judge me at some point!"

"You realize a spirit sounds completely insane, right?"

"Well, how did you get your powers?"

.

.

.

A subtle silence went over the two, as Haia seemed to compare their different origins in getting their powers. Granted hers has some actual ground, given the fact she was bitten by a spider that was genetically engineered. But to her admission, it doesn't make sense that the genetic alterations improved her rather than completely scramble her own DNA.

"Arachnid?"

"Fine, fine, okay, I'll go with your whole spirit thing." She responded, relenting and walking back down the wall onto the ground. "It's insane, but I guess if you can't explain everything that means you can't possible be making it up from scratch. Are you able to at least explain what your powers are?"

"Oh yeah, that's a lot easier!" Connor responded. "See, at first the spirit didn't tell me at all what I was able to do, so I kinda just thought it was a random dream. But then one day I thought about how cool it would be if it was real, and if I could run super fast or be incredibly strong. And then one day it just sort of… clicked!"

"I don't need the origin process, can you just explain what it is?"

"Oh, right got distracted. Well basically, if I think really hard on a certain aspect of myself, I can improve or alter it." Connor explained. "I like to call it Belief. If I think that I can run fast, I can suddenly do it. Or if I think of being super strong, I can hit hard and take serious hits. There's probably a lot more but I can't even think on what I can do, it's kinda, A LOT of stuff to go over that sometimes I forget and only remember the moment I need it or the idea just comes to mind. It's a really cool and unique power, if it has an issue or two with my thinking, but overall it's almost the perfect power."

"Almost? An all in one power seems like the perfect power to me." Haia admitted, finding the power extremely useful, he'd be a top tier threat if he was a villain and could rise to the ranks of legends if he used it right.

"Yeah, but there are limitations that I've noticed." Connor stated, looking down to his hand. "I can't make changes that aren't possible to the human body. So I can only make simple changes, I can't change myself to be made of metal or energy or anything cool like that. Then there's the mental lag I suffer because of it."

"Mental lag?"

"Yeah, at least that's what I think it is. See when I activate my powers, my mind sort of locks a certain level of focus on it. If I increase my speed too much, I can't react in time for turns or something else like that."

"That would explain you hitting the wall."

"Yeah… so what are we going to do now?"

"Well… for starters I can't exactly just leave you to your own devices." Haia stated, walking next to him and sitting on the dumpster. "I mean I thought I was green, but you make me look like I've been doing this for years. So it's best we put you through a proper rundown of being a hero."

"Yes!"

"Rule one: keep your mask on." Connor nearly snapped his neck when he moved to put his mask back on, getting a humored chuckle from her. "Rule two: only use your powers if you're confident that you can use it without putting others in danger."

"Wait, does that mean we're going to…?"

"The past few days haven't been too bad, if it stays that way we can get a few hours of training in for you today. After that, we can get Metal Knight to add in his own input… and maybe something that actually fits you." Haia added as she stood up, pinching Connor's tattered suit.

"What's wrong with this suit?"

"Aside from the fact it looks like you went to the nearest costume shop for Halloween?"

"It was on sale, it seemed like a good idea."

"My point exactly." Haia sighed.

 _'I bet Ddeallus never has to deal with something this stupid.'_

* * *

"So if I'm getting this straight; you're telling me you can transform anyone, and I mean ANYONE, into a Devil with… chess pieces?" Sam asked as he walked alongside Rias and her Peerage, the group walking through the woods to investigate an anomaly reported by the Gremory clan's Archbishop.

"They're more than just chess pieces, they're conduits with Devil magic and DNA flowing through them." Rias corrected. "We refer to them as Evil Pieces, they take different effects based on the ones you use. The Bishop piece in your hand can enhance the magic capability of whomever it is used on."

"So not only do you scramble the DNA of a person, you directly alter their biological limiters to produce an artificial Devil?"

"We refer to them as Reincarnated Devils, it doesn't make them seem like tools as calling them artificial would."

"Same end result." He'd say, tossing the Evil Piece to the redhead, who caught it and placed it into her skirt pocket. "Book keeping aside, what exactly did your Archbishop send us here for? Cause I'm not gonna lie…" He'd say, looking around to the darkened forest, the moon barely breaking through the leaves as it shined. "This feels like a horror movie waiting to happen."

"There's word going around that a Stray Devil has made an appearance near the edge of Kuoh." Akeno explained. "As the residential overseers of the town, it's our responsibility to deal with them."

"So we're here to kill them, that's what you're saying."

"You fought one Sam, you know what they can do." Rias responded. "Stray Devils cast aside everything for the sake of power. They're shells, with no desire outside of sustaining themselves."

"I don't believe that, but I don't suspect I'll change your mind." Sam spoke, shaking his head as he looked ahead. "So it's just go in, take care of it, come out and we're done?"

"I'd figure it'd be the best time to demonstrate how the Evil Pieces affect my servants, a sign of faith that we're willing to go through with our deal."

"Whatever you say."

"…It's coming." Koneko spoke up, the girl's nose twitching as she picked up a rouge scent. "…Blood, scales, and traces of corruption."

"Quite the nose you got there." Sam commented as his glasses HUD just informed him of an anomaly, the magic of the Stray registering with his updated system. "About a hundred meters, coming from our northwest."

"Stay behind us for this." Yumi said as she stepped in front of Sam, unsheathing her sword as she did. "Without your suit, you're completely outmatched by it."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Sam responded, taking several steps back with his hands up in mock surrender. While it was foolish to come without his suit, Sam knew that if he left with it Issei would check the lab the moment he saw he wasn't home. And if he saw this from the console, there'd be no way he could keep the Hyoudous out of this world. And if he couldn't do that, protecting them might as well be a pipe dream.

He did however keep his HUD up for the purpose of documenting everything he could. Any bit of information he could get from this expedition would be vital for his chances of fighting against Stray Devils and any other potential supernatural thereat that might come in the unforeseeable future.

 _ **"** **Ahhhh, what's this?"**_ Sam then shivered as he heard a twisted yet harmonious voice, the tone laced with deceit that promised a true freak that possessed the voice. _**"Such a unique set of smells before me. None quite like I've smelled before. I can't put a taste to some of them~. Some sweet, some bitter, so many options from my previous meals~"**_

' _This is a lot different.'_ Sam said, noting that the Stray sounded more focused on the tastes involved of them then the previous. He knew it had left the intention to eat him in the air, but it was certainly more focused on killing him and Haia rather than eating him. This one sounded hungry, starving if he didn't know any better.

"It's moving around us, I can't tell who it's focusing on but it's watching all of us." Sam stated, his HUD tracking the Stray's signal as it circled around them. He couldn't hear any footsteps, but he swore it was moving swiftly.

" _ **Oh, a human's scent?"**_ Sam's movements paused as the Stray singled him out. _**"To think one would bring itself out so far from the town. It's been so long since I've had one of you for a meal. And one so fresh, the last one had been far too gristly to enjoy. Perhaps you'll be better!"**_

His motion sensor went crazy as the Stray Devil moved rapidly, Sam turning in time to see the mutated being approach. But as he saw the creature right in front of him, it's face contorted as a fist struck it, the boy not even registering he was pulled out of Koneko's way.

"It figures a beast would attempt to go after the weak link." Yumi said, having kept Sam on his feet after grabbing him. "Good timing Koneko."

"…Thanks." The white haired girl would say, rolling her wrist as the Devil was sent crashing into one of the surrounding trees.

"N-Nice save." Sam said as Yumi released him, allowing him to stand on his own to regain his footing.

 _ **"** **Bitch, you dare strike against me!? A disgusting thing like you!?"**_ The Stray would hiss as it scrambled upwards, the human able to get a good look at it. The Stray was similarly covered in scales as the last one he fought, however unlike that one this one was much more human in shape from its waist up. The Stray appeared almost that of a lamia in old mythology excluding the twin snakes that acted as its arms.

"That's rather rich coming from a creature who eats humans." Yumi would respond, keeping her hand on her sword as she took a step towards the Stray.

 _ **"** **I don't want to hear that from you, bitch tits!"**_

"Are they normally like this or is this an anomaly?" Sam asked as he looked back to Rias. He knew a mutated Stray would be violent, but this one's much more vulgar than the one he fought.

"It often depends on the Devil before it mutates." Rias answered. "It's why you cannot give them any ground, the ones that go Stray are the worst of the worst, and Seluna is no acceptation to this." The redhead would then step past Koneko, standing tall before the Stray Devil with determination in her eyes.

"Seluna, you are accused of having betrayed your master and attempted to slay her with two of your fellow Pieces being murdered. What could you say to defend yourself?"

 _ **"** **What is there to defend for? The slut had no right to order me around and the two idiots made their choice to die for her. She couldn't contain my power and was always jealous of me, I deserved my freedom from such a worthless master!"**_

"Then you will fall for the slaughter of your comrades and the attempted murder of your master. I, Rias Gremory, will see to your punishment and destruction! You're wrath ends here!" Rias announced, pointing to the Stray Devil with added flare as she placed a hand on her hip.

 _ **"** **A Gremory huh? I bet you'll make a delicious treat then!"**_ The Stray hissed as she suddenly lunged forward, her jaw opening wide as her eyes glowed red. _**"You'll make a good appetizer for the human!"**_

"Kiba, if you would."

"Of course, Buchou." The blonde would simply say, her thumb pushing her sword out of her sheath for a second before she vanished from Sam's sight.

 _ **"** **G-GGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**_ Before he could even blink, Sam was caught off guard as one of the Stray's snake arms was cleaved off, a geyser of blood shooting out from the wound. And across from her, slowly turning around with her sword fully out and clean of any blood was Yumi.

 _'She's even faster than when we…'_

"Kiba is my Knight, with the piece infused with her she has a massive increase to her speed. She's excelled at using this to preform a single, clean attack to prevent a retaliation from Stray Devils." Rias explained, seeing Sam's shocked expression. "Most humans would struggle to even see her outline when she lets loose, only trained eyes can follow a Knight's full speed."

 _ **"** **You fucking bitch!"**_ The Stray screamed in rage, turning to Yumi with blood red eyes. _**"I'll rip you to bloody shreds for cutting my arm off! They won't find anything left of you after I-geh!?"**_ Before the Stray could even move, it was stopped when Koneko grabbed it's tail, keeping it in place without any effort.

"…You're too loud."

 _ **"** **So what, you fucking scrawny brat!? A pest like you doesn't matter to me-grah!"**_ The Stray wasn't able to finish as Koneko lifted her arms up and flung her up, bringing her down for a heavy slam that cracked the ground all around them.

"…Shut up."

"Koneko is my Rook: her strength and defenses are increased dramatically. She may not look it, but she's the physically strongest of my entire Peerage, myself included." Rias detailed, Koneko looking down to the Stray with her neutral fury.

"…Already dead?"

 _ **"** **You wish skank!"**_ The Stray flung its head up and opened it's mouth, a greenish liquid escaping from its fangs.

The Rook would jump back, avoiding the liquid from touching her directly as she landed next to her master and Sam. However, the top of her uniform was slowly corroding away, her stripped bra being revealed as a result.

"Are you okay Koneko?" Rias asked, looking to the girl in concern as she remained crouched down.

"…I'm fine." Koneko answered, looking down to the dissolving acid of the ground. "…Shirt's ruined."

"Um, here." Sam would say awkwardly, handing the middle schooler his jacket. "It isn't the right size, but it's probably better than nothing right?"

"…Thanks." The girl simply said, taking the jacket and putting it on, not bothering to worry about how big it was on her when she zipped it up.

 _ **"** **Are you ignoring me!?"**_ The Stray screeched. _**"I'm still here, and I won't stop until I've ripped and eaten each and every-!"**_

"Akeno."

"Ara Ara, my turn to play." A bolt of lightning struck the Stray before it could finish, the impact great enough to send the beast through a tree and nearly shatter the next behind it.

 _ **"** **Will you sluts stop interrupting my every senten-GRAH!"**_ A second lightning bolt interrupted the Stray, courtesy of Akeno as the girl slowly walked towards the beast.

"That's a rather foul mouth you have, and talking about my friends and kouhai in such a fashion no less. I shall give you a proper punishment for speaking in such a way." Akeno would say, a disturbing smile on her face as she looked to the Stray.

"Lightning? She uses lightning… I'm suddenly extremely glad my bluff worked." Sam muttered, getting Rias to turn to him.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing, just realizing I dodged the worst cardiac arrest in human history." He'd say, imagining the damage that could've been done to his heart should Akeno have fired a direct shot of her magic at his chest upon their confrontation last night.

"…Found the ultimatum."

"That is too big of a word for a middle schooler."

 _ **"** **G-GGAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**_ Th Stray's screams of pain brought Sam's attention back to the scene, his eyes widening in shock as he saw Akeno deliver bolt after bolt of lightning on the Stray, not even giving it a chance to get up.

"Back to where I was, the final piece of mine is Akeno. She is my Queen, my most trusted servant and most powerful. The Queen Piece takes the powers of the Rook, Knight and Bishop, boosting all of her abilities to the extent she's near my equal." After the twentieth blast of lightning, Rias would look directly back to Sam with a condescending smile. "She also has a bit of a sadist streak to her, enjoying the pain she delivers on others."

"Yeah… I think I noticed." Sam said awkwardly, looking to the side to avoid staring at Rias and Akeno, the latter of the two with bright red cheeks as she breathed with excitement.

"You don't need to worry, she's much more gentle with our allies than our enemies."

"Considering she was aiming a bolt of lightning at me last night, that does not make me feel too much better."

"She knew not to hit you directly in the chest, we wouldn't want your heart exploding." Rias promised, looking back to Akeno, the Queen panting more as she looked down to the damaged Stray Devil. "Okay Akeno, that is enough."

"Aw, over so soon?" Akeno sighed as she placed a hand on her cheek. "I suppose it can't be helped. Thank you for the fun while it lasted."

 _ **"** **Ghhh… Fucking bitch…"**_ The Stray grunted, attempting to push herself up, only to fall back down as dozens of burn scars decorated her scales.

"So then, any last words?" Rias would ask, approaching the Stray and stopping just in front of it.

 _ **"** **Go… fuck yourself… whore daughter of Gremory."**_ The Stray would spit, the acid just missing Rias as she remained unflinching.

"Very well then, turn to ash!" Rias would hold her hand out, a bright red glyph forming. Sam's energy readings than skyrocketed as her energy exploded out in the form of black and red magic. The magic didn't even pause as it enveloped the Stray; the resulting explosion completely eviscerated the beast.

The small burst of magic went away shortly after the explosion, dust settling as the red haired Devil stared down where the Stray once was. Her expression was of accomplishment, seeing the destruction of the Stray Devil as a successful operation.

"So Samuel, what do you think of our capabilities?" Rias would ask, turning back to the human.

"Aside from you're unnecessary amount of force and killing a defenseless opponent? I'm certainly glad I'm not on the other hand of that volatile energy you have." Sam answered, letting his distain for the death of the Stray Devil.

"I realize you still dislike our methods, but you must understand that creatures like Seluna would not hesitate to kill any one of us. Even those who don't do anything." Rias then quickly raised her hand and fired a single blast of her magic, Sam flinching in shock at attack. The magic just missed him, exploding behind him and getting him to turn and see the snake limb that was cut off get eviscerated.

"A Stray isn't dead until every source of conscious is killed. When a limb separates, it develops a conscious. So remember dismemberment isn't a recommended way to cripple them."

"…Noted." Sam said, looking at the ashes that were once the limb. "Well this was… well I'd say enlightening but, well you're Devils. So let's go with informative."

"Do you have any more questions for us for the night?"

"Nothing that can't wait." He shrugged, taking his glasses off and putting them in his pocket. "I've taken up enough of your girls' time, I should be getting back to the Hyoudou's before Ise wises up and sees I'm not home."

"Of course." Rias would nod before looking to Yumi. "Kiba, would you escort him back? No other Strays have been reported but it's better safe than sorry."

"Of course Buchou."

 _'Great, guess I'm skipping the lab then.'_ Sam thought to himself.

* * *

 _"List algorithm completed sir."_ AVAN would say, a tier list appearing on Sam's phone as he laid down in bed.

"Good, now then let's get to work on this." Sam would tap on the screen, pulling up pictures of all of the labeled students in Kuoh that he could confirm were a part of the supernatural. "Let's see… AVAN, put the group in the list based on the power recorded from them to start."

 _"Of course sir."_ The pictures would then be uploaded into the tier list and be put in their proper placements. As it came from power, the list appeared vastly different than expected. At the bottom in tier-E was Koneko, with virtually no magic or energy that was coming off of her. The list then went with Sona's Knight, and Pawn in tier-D, followed by her Rook and Yumi in tier-C. Tsubasa and Sona were then fitted into tier-B, with Akeno and Rias being placed into tier-A.

And at the top, ranked at tier-S was Denica. That one alone was unsurprising to the boy, as her energy was vastly different from all the others'.

"AVAN, alter the ranking for me." Sam would start, taking a second to consider the placements. "Move Koneko up to tier-C with Yumi, keep a light pin in them until a better understanding on them can be found. Then push Sona up to A with Akeno and have Rias go up to S alongside Denica."

 _"Already done sir."_ The AI responded, the pictures being altered to the positions requested.

"I have no idea what Sona or her Peerage can do, but if they're anything like Rias' they could pose a problem as well." Sam would say to himself, rubbing his chin as he placed his phone on his nightstand. "Not to mention whatever Denica is. The amount of energy she produced dwarfed Rias, and she didn't even do anything."

Sam's thoughts then went to Rias, recalling the feel and appearance of her magic. Destruction was the only descriptor that came to mind, and given how it eliminated the Stray without any effort made the inventor feel that it was a fitting description. He didn't know how strong the Stray Devil was, but if it was anything like the one he fought, it just proved how outclassed he was currently.

 _'This shit's going to be a problem.'_

 _"Sir, may I ask a question?"_ AVAN asked, getting him to roll and look to the AI's projection on his phone. _"Why are you having us catalog their strength and energy levels? Wouldn't this best be saved for planning for enemies?"_

"A simple rule AVAN, in unfamiliar territory everyone is an enemy. I don't know Rias' full intentions so I have to be prepared for the off chance she makes a move against Kuoh." He'd then look up to the ceiling, a distant gaze in his eyes as he did. "Not that I'd be able to do much at the moment. Just about any of them would likely wipe me off the face of the planet by a wave of their hand."

 _"Do you think that is wise? Mistrust can break an alliance."_

"A little mistrust is healthy, especially when dealing with Devils." Sam shrugged.

 _"If you say so. Goodnight, sir."_

"Goodnight AVAN."

* * *

 **(A/N): So... this took a long time to come out. Not going to lie, I've kind of started feeling a Marvel Fatigue after Endgame came out. I watched Spider-Man FFH and after that the inspiration kind of just dropped. I'm gonna be trying to keep this story going though, since I do actually like where I have this story planned on going.**

 **I also feel the length I've had on this introduction arc has made it a little difficult to go through, but I'll be keeping a focus on it. But I will keep it focused, as there's some early seeds to put in for the future of the story. I don't plan on dropping Sam's story and I'll do my best to avoid letting it sit with so little updates.**

 **I hope this chapter was good and that you all have a nice day. Peace!**


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